2015/06/08 by Robert J. Nemiroff, Qi Zhong, Elias Lilleskov
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Bulb #Front (military) #Geometry #Incandescent light bulb #Light source #Mathematics #Meteorology #Optics #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Philosophy #Physics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Ray #Simple (philosophy) #Speed of light (cellular automaton) #Surface (topology) #Thermal Radiation and Cooling Technologies #physics.pop-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0031-9120/51/4/043005
5 pages, 1 figure, comments welcome
arxiv created 2015/06/08 · openalex publication_date 2016/06/07 · arxiv updated 2016/06/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
When a light bulb is turned on, light moves away from it at speed c , by definition. When light from this bulb illuminates a surface, however, this illumination front is not constrained to move at speed c . A simple proof is given that this illumination front always moves faster than c . Generalized, when any compact light source itself varies, this information spreads across all of the surfaces it illuminates at speeds faster than light.