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Equation 46 · Part 3 · Every Crystal Has Its Own Speed of Light

superscript

v2/c2∼10−8v^2/c^2 \sim 10^{-8}
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What this part means

A raised number can be a power. When it is a label or bound, it selects a case or the upper limit of a sum; the formula’s structure distinguishes these uses.

Its job in the formula

A raised mark can be a power or an index. Its position and the surrounding notation determine which.

The passage around this formula

The magnitude is the first surprise. In a driven or flowing lattice, the cone speed along the drift is ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} + vdv_d in one direction and ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} - vdv_d in the other, so the anisotropy between the along-drift and transverse directions is δ\delta c/c ≃\simeq vdv_d/ceffc_{\mathrm{eff}} — first order in the drift velocity, not the crushing second-order v2v^2/c2c^2 ∼\sim 10^{-8} that made the 1887 experiment so demanding to run and so easy to see nothing in. At a tenth of the cone speed, the anisotropy is ten percent — a signal any competent interferometer would catch on its first pass, the mirror image of the historical null result. Such anisotropies are not a fiction of the model:…

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Learn the underlying idea

An exponent tells how a base is used in multiplication. In x³, x is the base and 3 is the exponent: x³ = x × x × x.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

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