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108 / JAIN STUDIES AND SCIENCE
What do we call illumination - absence of darkness? Or, is absence of light darkness? Even the brightness of sun is different at its own surface and at the surface of earth! There are stars which are million times brighter than our sun! So, how do we define brightness? There are three possible conditions -
Brightness: presence of light (Aasti-bhava) and absence of darkness (Naasti-bhava).
Darkness: less of light (Naasti-bhava) and more of darkness (Aasti-bhava).
Quantum: In all situations, quanta of light and darkness are
indeterminate (A-vaktavya). In view of the modern advancements in scientific concepts, a striking resemblance can be established between laws of physics and theory of Anekanta.
3. Scientific Aspect
Scientists, during their journey into the micro world, hit upon the unique properties of 'light'. Soon it was established that the light represent a boundary condition between the micro and the macro world (similar to a quadon being a link between massless dions and massive octons). Subsequently, Einstein proposed his theory of relativity which is entirely based on the physics of light. Paradoxically, Einstein declared in his theory of relativity that the speed of light is independent and not relative to the speed of observer. However, space and time will be observed differently by the observers moving at different speeds. This means that two observers, positioned differently will describe the same event differently. Both may be true to the extent of their individual observations, at the same time, they are false relative to each other. Now, readers can realise how close the theory of relativity is to the principle of Syadwad?
3.1. Light a Unique Substance
(For reasons of ease in understanding, author has treated all waves travelling at a speed of 3x108 m/s as light)
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Light has the fastest speed known to us so far. No matter can travel faster than light.
As a particle approaches speed of light, three things happen --
• Its volume shrinks to zero. - It's mass become infinity.
• Time is rendered void.
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