Chef Jim Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 And you're basing that on you knowledge of what, exactly? I had to do the photon calculation in college, BTW. It's REALLY fun calculating solar dynamics through the whole sphere of the sun by hand. Took about a week. The sun is actually opaque, not transparent. I hear it's like really hot too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 I hear it's like really hot too. Same principle: sound travels faster than light in a block of steel, too. Anyone with half a brain could figure that out. CLEARLY that exempts anyone with the initials "BF". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfatbillsfan Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Simple, actually...photons get continually absorbed and re-emitted by the electrons within the sun's plasma. The average time for a "single" photon to move from the sun's core to the photosphere (where it's finally emitted from the sun) is roughly a million years (give or take a power of ten). That's about 700 meters per year. The speed of sound in the sun - the speed of shockwaves in the sun ("sunquakes", basically) - is on the order of 10,000 meters per second. Just because it's taking a photon longer to reach the surface of the sun than a shock wave does not mean the photon is traveling any slower than the wave. Light is not traveling slower than sound, it is just taking an indirect route to the surface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VABills Posted August 29, 2012 Share Posted August 29, 2012 I didn't watch last night but was the mayor from Utah in chains? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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