understanding light

[Wildman]

if you want the best from using p.h, use an e.c meter to check the water's and neuts electricity's conductivity. and just like p.h one can adjust the e.c levels up or down. but imo, food, smoke ect that has been grown with chems and hydro are fat and empty of taste. its bio all the way for me. i have been working on my own version of bio-ponics. big pots of watered soil, the bottom of the pots kissing the top of a tub full of bubbling neuts. so through the plants veg stage they have been grown in soil and by the time the roots hit the dwc tub at the bottom the plant should have started flowering and one can fine tune the amount whatever they need. also sugar mollasses is the key to taste and good bacteria to the roots.

[Luci_ferson]

your exactly right about the chemically fed hydroponically grown food.
its garbage.
organic hydroponics is the way.
its not as hard as it seems once you learn about water chemistry.
I managed to grow allsorts successfully.
but I had the help of an excellent book to get me started and I already had the advantage of understanding water chemistry.
the rest is just knowing what organics to add to your water. and how to get the ph to balance back to where you wanted and stay there.

[Tartar Horde]

(5 April 2013, 13:46)Hrusai Wrote: afraid not dude

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_light


though gravity does indeed bend light happily

I agree with the article that light can be slowed down artificially (non vacuum experimental environment) but light photons don't exihbit those characteristics in natural observation, as the speed of light SEEMS to be constant no matter where you look in the universe. I wonder if there are places in the universe that have the same conditions as those experiments on Earth as mentioned in the article that slow light down naturally? that would be a very weird place

[Luci_ferson]

you do realise you've now crossed into theoretical science, which is no use to the average prepper, and only theoretical so has no definitive correct answer so you could go round in circles forever arguing about it all. (scientists do all the time)

its a prepper forum , I don't think most of the others could care less about the effects of a black hole on light.

but for reference the conditions within a black hole we can only guess about. (theoretical)
scientists cannot measure the inside of it at all.
therefore it can never be proven one way or the other wether the gravity of a black hole is strong enough to not only bend the light but to slow it or even stop it entirely.

it simply couldn't be proven or disproven in any way. all we could do is throw scientific papers at eachother all day and non of us would still be any further forward to proving anything. its all theoretical
and non of this would do any good to the average prepper at all.
or ourselves.

just round and round in circles bouncing various scientific papers that some scientists believe and others don't.
if they cant make up their minds I don't think we would do much better either.

unless you've got an idea for a plan for us to enter a black hole and collect the necessary data.

[Luci_ferson]

incase you missed my point and still wish to contemplate theoretical sciences.

personally I believe light don't slow down or stop, it only bends.
but I cant prove it.
and im open to all possibilitys
as for the truth, I really don't know. but then again nobody else does either. (not for sure)

[Hrusai]

okay just cause im a science guy i feel compelled to reply at least once more xD

light when travelling through something like glass doesn't technically slow down, it gets absorbed by atoms, then re-emitted with the exact same properties and direction, so it enters and exits the medium in the same state, but the time it takes for the photon to be absorbed and re-emitted is what causes this apparent slowing,

im not sure how they slowed light down in those other experiments though, and i doubt it has anything to do with absorption and re-emission

as for how light does this absorbtion and re-emission, all the photon of light is doing is hitting an electron, raising the electrons energy level, then the electron wants to drop down to a lower energy state, the lowest it can as this is the most pleasing configuration for matter, and in dropping down, it sheds the excess energy as a photon, its called excitation.

also they are various ideas floating around for a "naked singularity" that is to say the infinitely high mass bit of the black hole, seperated from its event horizon, but yes such ideas are pointless to get into for the average prepper, although it can be an interesting exercise of the mind.

[Luci_ferson]

nothing wrong with the exercise of the mind.

my problem is I forget to exercise the body a lot of the time.

[Skean Dhude]

As preppers all we need to know is we need light to see, plants need light to grow and the light required for those is slightly different so a light bulb is great for seeing things but not so good for the plants, you need a special light. Sunlight has a wide spectrum and covers both. Sunlight is good, artificial light uses power and isn't as good.

Darkness is your friends when you are a predator and your enemy if you are the prey.

[Tartar Horde]

The teqnique of reducing light to stimulate flowering is well known in horticulture. Could this teqnique be used for flowering plants like Peas, Beans and Potato's? where they are grown in polytunnels. If you could shut out the light would you be able to flower all your Pea plants at the same time for instance, or would it not work with these plants.

[Luci_ferson]

it works with all plants if you know the time of year it is meant to flower.

if a plant flowers in the summer of the uk.
then its trigger is usually around the 12 h light 12 hr dark
if it naturaly flowers slightly earlier in the year then you adjust accordingly.

same principal for all plants. its how they know the time of the year, light and temp.

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if the plant originates elsewhere , find out when it would naturally flower and you've got the begginings of knowing how to force it to flower.
ideally you extend its hours to 18hrs
most plant under 18 hours of light will not reach a flowering stage, and stay in permanent vegetation stage.

this can be used to get plants a lot bigger and a greater root ball.
(you plant them earlier but with extended light )

by the time they are ready to flower naturally your plants are now twice as large as the ones that were just planted at the right time.

but that's only one example of light maniplulation. theres many.
colour is just as important as duration, as is intensity.
a plant that flowers in the summer of England would require close to 12 light and 12 dark
theres other countries that's plants would be the same, but the light colour would be different.
you need to match the colour also.

as a rule its usually plenty of powerfull deep blues and whites when its only a seedling (flurescents )
and as you flower it you switch to orange coloured light (HPS sodiums)

obviously without electricity colour couldn't be done through bulb types so it would have to be done through coloured filters.

as for intensity that's a lot more difficult, since al plants have different requirements.
some low light some high light.

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12hr light and 12hr dark with orange light would make a plant assume it is late autumn , not summer.
it would assume it has missed its ideal flowering time, and so stop concentrating on growing and instantly flip into a late flowering mode.
causing forced flowering within around 2 weeks of the light change.

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The result would be more denser concentration of fruits.
as it tried its hardest to create as many fruits as possible before it was due to die.

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theres many books out there on the subject, but I found Mr G.Mayfields the easiest to absorb for the average person.
he only uses the technical terms if it is absolutely necessary.
he tries to leave out the complicated stuff, but still show you the hows and whys.
its easier to understand and learn something if you have the how and why.