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hyperhelloyesterday at 9:23 PM4 repliesview on HN

Unfounded speculation, but is it possible that every particle could have a different individual light speed, and the one we know is just the average speed that they have to drop or speed up to, the way a car needs to travel at the same speed as the highway?


Replies

drdecayesterday at 9:45 PM

By "every particle" do you mean like, every type of particle?

If you mean individual particles, fundamental particles don't really have distinct individual identities (as shown by fermi and bose statistics).

As for types of particles: Well, photons surely move at the speed photons move at.

Special relativity is derived from the assumption/observation that light travels at the same speed in all inertial reference frames, and generally that the laws of physics work the same in any inertial reference frame.

What you are proposing sounds pretty vague and unclear to me, but, is what you are trying to say compatible with this?

setoptyesterday at 9:38 PM

Probably no, because according to quantum mechanics, photons are indistinguishable in a way that affects experiments.

exe34yesterday at 9:25 PM

What measurable predictions does this hypothesis make that would differ from the existing models?

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