Q&A: Laws: an independent entity or a description of the objects
Laws: an independent entity or a description of the objects
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Following my reading of Yuval Steinitz’s book A Logical, Scientific Missile.
A question came up for me: the propagation of gravitational-field / electromagnetic waves — are they faster than the speed of light, for example “in the sense that there is no such thing,” and fill all of space instantaneously, or are they slower, so that it takes time for gravitational-field waves to spread through space?
If they are faster, then presumably the law is external to the objects and directly affects all of space.
But if they are slower / at the same speed, then there is significant room to say that they are part of matter.
Thanks in advance!
Answer
Hello Kobi. According to what is currently known to us, nothing propagates faster than the speed of light. In particular, electromagnetic waves propagate at the speed of light, and from the equations of general relativity it follows that gravitational waves also propagate at the speed of light (see here: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%AA%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA_%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99_%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%91%D7%99%D7%93%D7%94)
In any case, I do not see what this has to do with the question of whether they are part of matter or not. In fact, I do not understand this whole “inquiry” (= whether the waves are part of matter or not) at all.
If they were to spread instantaneously throughout all of space, we would say that these are certainly universal laws of nature.
If not, then reality and the inquiry remain as they were.