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A Critique
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the quanta of each light-frequency [colour]. On purely theoretical grounds he concluded that each quantum (packet) carried an amount of energy given by the equation, E=hv where v is the frequency of radiation and his Planck's constant. A small but inexorable number which has since proved to be one of the most fundamental constants in nature. All forms of radiant energy - light, heat, X-rays -actually travel through space in separate and discontinuous quanta and the amount of emitted energy divided by the frequency is always equal to h. Thus sensation of colour arise from the bombardment of our optic nerves by light quanta which differ from each other just as the frequency varies in the equation E-hv. Thus, energy-packets of each colour would have the same amount of energy. The packets of violet light, however, are larger than the packets of green light and these are again larger than packets of red light.
Another universal constant is the velocity of light, denoted by the letter c, which was accurately determined in 1849 to be 186,284 miles per second! The velocity of light is unaffected by the motion of earth, sun, noon, star or any other system moving anywhere in the universe i.e. it is constant throughout the universe and is unaffected either by the motion of its source or the inotion of the receiver. We are already familiar with Einstein's equation giving the increase in mass2 with velocity of a moving body, where this constant is used –
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1. The latest corrected value is determined to be 2.997925 x 100 meters per
second in vacuum. 2. Units of measurement :
There are three fundamental units of modern scientific measurement. They are units of length, mass and time. The unit of length, metre, was defined earlier as one ten-millionth part of a quarter meridian. In 1967, this was replaced by the wave-length of orange-red radiation of krypton. The present valid definition of the unit of length is “1,650,763,73 wave-lengths of orange-red radiation of krypton & in vacuum."
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