Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: manjucv on 10/05/2008 08:28:53
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I dont know whether it is authentic or fake i got this in one of the blog how could ancient people so accurately calculate the speed of light? see below info
A verse from RIG
VEDA(I,50-4).
In the verse Sun light speed is referred with the help of units called YOJAN.
"Yojananam Dwe Dwe Shate Dwe Cha Yojane Aken Nimishardhena Krammana Namostute"
In this verse sun is referred to with respect saying that sunlight moves 2202 Yojans in Half Nimish. Yojan is quite a common unit in India. It means 4 KOSE, each kose measuring 8000 BRITISH YARDS AND EACH YARD MEASURING 0.9144 M.
The Definition of time unit Nimish can be found in ShrimadhBhagwat(ii,11-3 TO 10) WHERE IT IS MENTIONED THAT 15 NIMISHAS MAKE 1 Kashta,15 kashtas make 1 laghu, 30 laghus make 1 muhurtas and 30 muhurtas make 1 Diva-ratri. A diva Ratri is day-night and 24 hours in modern language. When you convert 2202 YOJANS PER HALF NIMISH INTO SI UNITS YOU FIND IT TURNS OUT TO BE:
15 Nimish = 1 Kashth
30 Kashth = 1 Kaal ( 30 * 15 Nimish = 450 Nimish)
30 Kaal = 1 Muhurt ( 450 * 30 Nimish = 13500 Nimish)
30 Muhurt = 1 Ahoratr ( 13500 * 30 Nimish = 405000 Nimish)
1 Ahoratr = 1 Day (24 Hours)
1 Day = 24 * 60 * 60 Seconds = 86400 Seconds
86400 Seconds = 405000 Nimish
1 Second = 4.69 Nimish
1 Nimish = .214 Second
3X10^8 m/s upto two significant digits a value quite accurate as we know it today
A nimesa is therefore equal to 16/75 seconds. It does come very close to the correct figure of 186,000 miles per second.”
guys do comment on your views
source: http://probedeep.blogspot.com/2008/03/speed-of-light-according-to-rigveda-how.html
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If you use units derived from common experience such as 0.2 second about the common reaction time and 50 Cm's about a forearms length and add in factors like 10^8 it is not suprising that you get somewhere near the speed of light.
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Is the link claiming that someone measured c independently way back in history? Or is is just a result of changing into another set of units and back again?
Claiming that the ancients had measured c is pretty dodgy, I feel and converting units is just trivial.
We'd have to see genuine documents with suitable provenance. Experimental details would be handy too!
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There's an article on the arxiv talking about it:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/9804/9804020v3.pdf
The gist of the article is that the number is probably a correct translation of the document, but comes from a coincidence. The Puranic model was that the universe was finite, and this number is probably a calculation of how fast light would have to go in order to circle the universe in a day.
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I believe that they did it. The Big Bang is included in one of the Upanishads - if my membery serves me correct. The mythology is that when Brahman sleeps, there is no universe, he opens his eyes and the universe springs into being from an explosion of consciousness. It expands and produces all that we experience, then as Brahman goes back to sleep, the universe is destroyed. The fact that it arises and goes back into consciousness gives some credence to this as QM seems to suggest that particles separated by distance to act as if they were aware of each other, i.e., the particles have some sort of consciousness.
It is a thought anyway.
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back to quantum entanglement again.
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yep - guess it is too much to hope for but a new theory of everything would help.
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back to quantum entanglement again.
At least it's not back to photons. [;D]
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Now, about photons . . . . . .