this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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Science Memes

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Another day another dollar (mander.xyz)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (3 children)

We know the speed of light; but what is the speed of shadow?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

He's pretty fast, iirc. At least he was in that one sonic game.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

a shadow is just a silhouette cast on a surface, so it can move much faster than light. An object moving near the speed of light in front of a small light source that casts a shadow on a very large, very distant object could appear to move billions of times faster than light (though you would need an extremely bright light source for the shadow to be noticeable to the naked eye)

there's really no upper limit, just how far you're willing to stretch the definition of "shadow" and "movement"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I've been pondering about responding to you. Since I can't see this as some sort of irony - here goes.

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. The shadow in your example would be bound by the speed of light, because the photons from the source of light are also bound by it.

A shadow is just a lack of photons on a surface surrounded by other photons.