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The speed of light has steadily been declining

since the dawn of time

This is an amplified and amended article by Chris Bennet, that was placedon the Internet (2009, WorldNetDaily.com). He explains that as early as 1979an Australian student in physics and geography, Barry Setterfield, thought itwould be interesting to chart all the different measurements of the speed of

light, that started with a 17th century Danish astronomer, Olaf Roemer (OleRmer). In 1676 he took the first measurements of the speed of light.

In the following years Setterfield acquired data on over 163 measurements

that were using 16 different methods over a time span of 300 years, excludingthose of Roemer, which he considered unreliable. The early measurementstypically tracked the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter when the planet was near

the Earth and compared it with observations when the planet was farther away.These observations were standard, simple and repeatable, and have beenmeasured by astronomers since the invention of the telescope. These are

demonstrated to astronomy students even today.

The early astronomers kept meticulous notes and sketches, many of which

are still available. Setterfield expected to see the recorded speeds grouped

around the accepted value for light speed, roughly 299,792 kilometers /second.In simple terms, half of the historic measurements should have been higher andhalf should be lower. What he found defied belief. The derived light velocities

from the early measurements were significantly higher than today. Even moreintriguing, the older the observation, the faster the speed of light. A samplingof these values is listed below: (see also: setterfield.org)

In 1738: 303,320 +/- 310 km/second

In 1861: 300,050 +/- 60 km/second

In 1877: 299,921 +/- 13 km/second

In 2004: 299,792 km/second (accepted constant)

Setterfield teamed with statistician Dr. Trevor Norman who demonstrated

that, even allowing for the clumsiness of early experiments, and correcting forthe multiple lenses of early telescopes and other factors related to technology,the speed of light was discernibly higher 100 years ago, and as much as 1.17%higher in the 1700s. Dr. Norman confirmed that the measurements were

statistically significant with a confidence level of more than 99%. Afterextensive peer review Setterfield and Norman published their results in July

1987 at the SRI International. (SRI International was founded as the StanfordResearch Institute. It separated from Stanford University in the seventies.)

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During 2002 and 2003, Dr. Joao Magueijo, a physicist at Imperial Collegein London, Dr. John Barrow of Cambridge, Dr. Andy Albrecht of UC Davis(University of California) and Dr. John Moffat of the University of Toronto

have all published work advocating their belief that light speed was muchhigher as much as 10 to the 10th power faster in the early stages of the BigBang than it is today, which was an extension of the work of the Russian

theoretical physicist, Dr. V.S. Troitskii, in 1987. They believed, with theexception of John Barrow, that the speed of light was faster only in the instantsfollowing the very first beginnings of time. But those beliefs were not basedon measurements, but on mathematical equations.

However, Setterfield and others believe, based on measurements, that the

speed of light has steadily been declining from the very beginnings up to thepresent time, though a remark is in order here. The decline has not beencontinuous over time, as measurements have indicated: a minimum value wasreached around 1970/1980, and since then the speed has been increasing again,

teaming up with many other cosmological constants.

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Using the aberration method, C. Barnet et al. reported in 1985 that light

from distant quasars arrive here with the same velocity as light from nearbystars. That seems to be a problem, for they concluded that the velocity of light

had remained constant to within 0.4% throughout the life of the universe.However, as Barry Setterfield remarked, these results do not necessarily set

limits on a cosmological variation of the velocity of light, but rather affirm theprinciple that the light velocity has a universal value at any given time t (ortime capsule). See: The Aberration Constant for QSOs by C. Barnet, R.

Davis and W. L. Sanders - Astrophysical Journal 295 # Aug. 1985 (pp. 24-27).

credit: Jean-Pierre Petit

Four other major observed anomalies are consistent with a slowing of thespeed of light, as Setterfield pointed out:

1. quantized red-shift observations from other galaxies,2. measured changes in atomic masses over time,

3. measured changes in the Plancks Constant over time,

4. and differences between time as measured by the atomic clock, and

time as measured by the orbits of the planets in our solar system.

See: The Atomic Constants, Light, and Time by Barry Setterfield and

Trevor Norman August 1987, as had been prepared for Lambert T. Dolphina Senior Research Physicist.