RE: Speed of light not constant = young universe
July 5, 2014 at 3:39 pm
(This post was last modified: July 5, 2014 at 3:42 pm by Anomalocaris.)
Substantial changes to speed of light through history of the universe can only be embraced if one arbitrarily asserts other physical constants of the universe happen to also change precisely in such a way as to largely cancel out the effects of changes in C. This is because studies have concluded speed of light can not have changed independently of other physical constants by more than 1 part in a hundred thousand since the formation of earth, otherwise discernible geophysical and astrophysical evidence of the change would be detected by now.
A change of 1 part in a hundred thousand in light speed over 4.6 billion years will change estimate of age of universe by only a hundred thousand years or so out of 13 billion years, a deviation that would be totally lost in other measurement errors.
Those hypothesis which seriously suggests varying speed of light over the history of universe seem to suggest any major changes to speed of light only happened within first fraction of second of universe's existence, during inflationary era. No one seem to suggest anything like the sort of subsequent major change that would broadly invalidate measurements of the age of universe.
A change of 1 part in a hundred thousand in light speed over 4.6 billion years will change estimate of age of universe by only a hundred thousand years or so out of 13 billion years, a deviation that would be totally lost in other measurement errors.
Those hypothesis which seriously suggests varying speed of light over the history of universe seem to suggest any major changes to speed of light only happened within first fraction of second of universe's existence, during inflationary era. No one seem to suggest anything like the sort of subsequent major change that would broadly invalidate measurements of the age of universe.
