What is the speed of dark?

1. 82

   workingmomwmposted 13 years ago

   What is the speed of dark?
   
   My husband found this question in his fortune cookie tonight. Neither one of us knew how to answer it. And we certainly didn't know how it related to fortune. So, I thought it might be interesting to throw it out here and see others had to say.
   
   

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2. 91

   Pcunixposted 13 years ago

   Some of the best answers are at http://www.freakface.com/speedofdark/

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3. 0

   Butch Newsposted 13 years ago

   Dark, by definition, is the absence of light.  So I suppose the logical answer would be zero.  But there is nothing that stands still.  You are traveling at least 100,000 miles per hour through space as you read this.
   
   The Earth is turning at 1,000 miles per hour at the equator, and hurling around the Sun which is hurling around the Milky Way which is hurling around the super cluster of it's local system of galaxies which is also moving through space.  Nothing ever sits still and, if it did, reality would grind to an instant halt.

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   1. 53

      Bean Dipposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      This is true, however it depends on your perspective relative to however much you want it. Based on this, if the universe is infinitely big, we would all be moving at infinite speeds.

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4. 79

   japtakerposted 13 years ago

   This sounds almost like a sort of modern koan. Koans are zen riddles which are meant to confer a cessation of the usual rational thought processes upon the person who properly meditates on them. An example of an classic koan is "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

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5. 65

   Tusitala Tomposted 13 years ago

   Maybe its exactly the same speed.   We know radio waves are, and we can't see them.
   
   If the visual universe is expanding, why not the invisible one.   Our view on total reality of WHAT IS is so miniscule as to be off the page with a trillion zeros in front of it.   Ultra violet to infra red and that bit in the middle called White Light is only a fraction of a fraction of the whole.
   
   It's a good quesiton, though.

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6. 0

   wilbury4posted 13 years ago

   I think that darkness is the natural state without light, likened to a void, it is nothing, like a blank sheet of paper before you write on it. I don't think it has a speed.

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7. 59

   C.V.Rajanposted 13 years ago

   The speed of darkness is one divided by the speed of light. (Ha! I a have become a scientist!)

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8. 67

   ptosisposted 13 years ago

   
   
   Fantasic Q! The dual nature of light of wave/particle means that a light wave emenating from outer-space 'collapses' into a particle when observed in our eyes. Darkness is lightness un-observed?
   
   "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" = that's easy! A slap across the face! (backhanded?)
   
   My question: IIf excactly 100 light waves left a light bulb into a room - how come the light does not get dimmer with the more observers are in the room?
   
   How come a light bulb doesn't get dimmer when there is a 100 eyes receiving the particle impact as opposed to just one eye?
   
   From: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Why-Is-Q … 0009.shtml
   
   "Niels Bohr argued that the collapse was caused by the act of observation itself and proposed that in quantum mechanics there is no longer a distinction between the thing observed and the observer. This is probably one of the most unfortunate ideas ever put forward in physics and many are still entangled in it. They wonder for example what exactly causes this supposed collapse of the wave: is it the consciousness of the observer or the contact to any "macroscopic object" (whatever that means)? Ideas such as the Schr?dinger cat were invented to emphasize the paradoxical consequences of Niels Bohr idea."
   
   
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/QuantumVagary

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9. 68

   m920621mposted 13 years ago

   Hm... If darkness is the absence of light, that means the speed of dark is how quickly light becomes absent. So basically, it means that the speed of dark should be equal to the speed of light. Am I right? Ha ha

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10. 66

    Thesourceposted 13 years ago

    Darkness moves at the tail end of a light that has gone off.
    Therefore, I can say that it moves at the speed of light.

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11. 60

    tymmyposted 13 years ago

    i think darkness has the same speed as light. imagine switching off the lights in a room at night, darkness envelops the room at the same same speed it would take for the room to light up when you turn on the lights. that just my opinion anyway.

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12. 58

    Beege215eposted 13 years ago

    That is an old George Carlin joke. "I know the speed of light, but does anyone know the speed of dark?"  He doesn't ponder the question, or look to physics for an answer, he just frowns and looks at the audience while they laugh.

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13. 72

    JT Waltersposted 12 years ago

    The simple answer is we can't measure things that are incomprehensible and dark light is beyond our ability to comprehend at this time.

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14. 73

    frogyfishposted 12 years ago

    My initial response was that dark had no speed:  It is a state of being, in the absence of light.
    Upon reading the comments, I decided to agree with those that said it was equal to the speed of light. 
    Either one is ok by me.  Fun question!

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15. 53

    R-Bonhartposted 9 years ago

    It's a good question and I'd like to answer it in a humurous but at least from a scientific point of view.
    Darkness is the absence of light. If the speed of darkness has to be meassured, then it would have to be in regard to the blinking "on and off" of light. This, I believe, gives a view that at the moment of "light-off", darkeness is present.
    But darkness itself does not travel. It merely presents itself when light is absent.

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16. 53

    Bean Dipposted 8 years ago

    There is no speed of dark. Dark is merely an absence of light. Some people could supposedly say it is equal to the speed of the receding light, but darkness occurs after the light is already gone. Darkness is more of a state of being then an actual substance that has speed.

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