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RE: starship-design: Many Questions



Kyle,

3. Why does light speed up in casimir cavities?

Light speeds up because in normal light transmission there is always some absorption and retransmission by atoms present in the path of the photons. Even though it is nearly instantaneous, it isn't instant. Since a Casimir cavity is too small to contain many (or any) atoms, there is less absolution going on.

It isn't really a matter of the speed of light going up in the cavity, it just comes closer to approaching it.

Lee

                                                          (o o)
------------------------------------------------------oOO--(_)--OOo---------
Who can guess what strange roads there may yet be on which we may travel to 
the stars?

Arthur C. Clarke, The Promise of Space, 1968