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Old 11-28-2004, 03:17 PM   #3 (permalink)
stingc
Psycho
 
Location: PA
Quote:
Originally Posted by cybersharp
Now, considering everything has to have force applied to move, what propells light that fast..
You're a few centuries out of date . Things need a force to accelerate them; not to move at a constant speed.

An heuristic explanation would say that light is composed of particles with zero mass. Since a=F/m, any force whatsoever will cause light to move at the fastest speed possible. Relativity tells us that there is a finite maximum speed, and that it is a universal constant. So light moves at that speed (in a vacuum).

To be honest about it, that explanation is quite wrong. It is a useful mental picture, though. A more detailed explanation would get technical pretty quickly.
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