Does A Prism Imply The Existence Of An Aether Field

How about, as previously stated: the temporal origin point of the signal.
 
Zeno: if there were an aether which slowed light down in one direction due to Earth's rotation through it wouldn't it be more difficult for us (or planes, or ships, or birds, etc) to travel in that same direction?
 
Why are we still talking about the aether ?.
I thought this was over already ?
Otherwise they wouldn't be teaching this in high school no ?
 
James R said:
You can't see anything unless light comes from what you see and enters your eye. What's this "observation of a journey" idea you have?

If you see a beam of light passing through a prism, it is because some of the light is scattered out of the prism towards your eye. Take another example: laser beams. You can't see a laser beam at all unless there is dust in the air that scatters some of the light towards your eye.

Or, forget lasers and think about the light from a flashlight shone into the sky. Can you see the beam of the flashlight? If so, it is only because dust in the air is scattering some of the light out of the beam and towards your eye. Put smoke through the beam and you get more scattering and you see the beam more clearly. Shine the beam in a clean room and you won't see it at all until it hits a wall or object, in which case it is the wall or object scattering the light back to your eye.

There is no "observation of a journey". You only see light if it comes straight towards your eye and hits your retina.



Do you see the problem with that idea now? You only see a rainbow if light comes from the rainbow and enters your eye. So, what happens in a rainbow? What happens is that light from the sun (always behind you, notice), hits water droplets in the air and is reflected by them back towards your eye.



Wrong. You're watching light bounce through and off water droplets in front of you. The light travels in straight lines from the sun to the droplets, then back to your eye.



What circle?
Click to expand...

This whole discussion to me has been fascinating and I want to thank you James for making some absolute, yet at times elusive, aspects of the perception of light clear to me. I would like to ask you a basic question that this whole "rainbow" example made me curious about.

What is responsible for the rounded shape of the rainbow? Is it actually the physical shape of our eye, or is it an attribute of Earth's environment, or?
 
The round rainbow has to do with the fact that water droplets are round, I believe. The sunlight is moving through the droplet, bouncing off the backside, and coming down to our eyes. The angle of the light reflection must be just right in order to see colors, and this "sweet spot" of an angle is equal only in a cone centered on the middle of our head's shadow. Or something. :D
 
The shape of the rainbow is that the angle from the sun to the raindrop and then to the eye is a constant angle. That forms a cone. The base of the cone is a circle.

If you want to see great photos of rainbows and explanations of how they form look here:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/bows.htm
 
stereologist you just confirmed to me that I can talk out of my ass and still put something resembling a correct answer together. At least this once. :cool:
 
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