Breaking Down The Language Of Light, Speed, Color And Ontology
Introduction
Leaving Nothing Assumed
This article builds on the ontological rethinking of light from our previous publication, “The Ontology and Physics of Light”. Here, we slow down and define the terms you may have heard all your life but never fully unpacked. This is not written for physicists or philosophers. It is written for thoughtful readers who want to know what these words, equations and symbols actually mean.
Let’s start at the beginning.
What is c in E = mc²?
In Einstein’s equation, the letter “c” stands for the speed of light in a vacuum, approximately 299,792,458 meters per second. The “c” comes from the Latin word *celeritas*, which means swiftness or speed. Einstein chose “c” as a symbol because it was already in use for speed in 19th-century physics literature.
But why not use “l” for light? Likely because “l” was already used for length in early classical equations and geometry. “c” gave a clear distinction for a constant speed.
In E = mc²:
– E is energy
– m is mass
– c² is the square of the speed of light
What Does the Squared Symbol (²) Mean?
When something is squared, it is multiplied by itself.
So:
c² = c × c = 299,792,458 × 299,792,458 = about 8.99 × 10^16
That’s nearly 90 quadrillion in energy units.
This is not a small adjustment. This means that even a tiny amount of mass, when converted to energy using c², creates an enormous amount of energy. That’s how nuclear bombs work, mass is released as energy using that multiplier.
Why Was This a Problem for
the Early Universe?
Physicists have admitted that the speed of light could not have built or held together a universe in its earliest moments. According to British physicist Paul Davies and others, if light had been limited to 299 million meters per second, then the early universe would have torn itself apart before forming.
So a patch was inserted into the model: inflation.
What is Inflation?
Inflation refers to a theory that, in the first 10⁻³⁶ to 10⁻³² seconds after the Big Bang, the universe expanded faster than the speed of light by a factor of 10²⁶, a number so large it suggests expansion at nearly unimaginable speed.
The problem? The word “inflation” makes it sound gentle, like pumping up a balloon. But this was not slow. It was faster than any speed ever measured. By mathematical definition, it is faster than immediacy, which means it’s not just fast, it’s beyond interaction.
That is why the term inflation is misleading. It was a patch, a placeholder added where the math failed to hold.
What is a Patch in Theoretical Physics?
A “patch” in theoretical physics is a math fix. It is not a discovery. It is an invention meant to keep a theory working when numbers stop making sense.
Inflation is a patch. Dark matter is often used as a patch. Dark matter is a term used to describe invisible mass that is believed to account for missing gravitational effects in galaxies and galaxy clusters. It has never been directly observed or detected. Its existence is inferred solely from mathematical gaps in gravitational models. In this way, it functions not as a confirmed substance, but as a placeholder to justify observations that do not align with standard equations.
What is Meant by Immediacy?
Immediacy means something is not delayed. There is no travel, no waiting. In the context of light, it means that light does not move from one place to another. It appears exactly where and when interaction occurs.
This is what the ℓ in the Lilborn Equation represents. It replaces c² not with another speed but with immediacy as a condition.
What is the Interaction of Light?
Light is never seen in space unless it is interacting with matter. You never see a photon floating by. You only see a satellite, or a planet or a surface when light strikes it.
That is interaction. Light does not reveal itself. It reveals what it touches.
What Does “Early Universe” Mean?
The phrase “early universe” refers to the moments immediately after what is theorized as the Big Bang. But what’s often not mentioned is that the sky we see today is the same sky astronomers saw 2,000 years ago.
No star has appeared or disappeared in that time. The universe, by every visible metric, is flat, stable and consistent.
What has changed is our ability to detect extremely faint light from things like supernovae or energy bursts. These are sometimes called stars, but they are not stars in the traditional sense. They are expiration events, bright for a moment, but not generative.
What is Color?
Color is not inside light. It is produced by light at the moment of interaction.
Conventional physics says objects “absorb all colors except one”. But if color is light, and light cannot be absorbed (only redirected or blocked), then this explanation fails.
A red jacket is not reflecting red light and absorbing others. It is interacting with light in a way that produces the perception of red.
What is White Light?
White light is a condition created when multiple wavelengths of light interact at once, often from sources like the Sun or bulbs.
White light is not a container. It is a range of potentials that produce color only when meeting a surface.
Why is Space Black?
Because there is nothing to interact with. If light were traveling through space, space should glow. But it doesn’t. Space is completely black unless something is there to encounter light.
That is the clearest sign that light is not traveling through the void. It appears only at points of structural interaction.
What is Ontology?
Ontology is the study of what something is. Not how it behaves, but what it fundamentally is.
When we speak of the ontology of light, we are not asking, “How fast does it move?” We are asking, “What is light if it does not need to move at all?”
We believe the answer is:
Light is immediate interaction. That is what the Lilborn Equation, E = mℓ, brings into focus.
No delay. No travel. No containment.
Only encounter.
Produced by The Lilborn Equation Team:
Michael Lilborn-Williams
Daniel Thomas Rouse
Thomas Jackson Barnard
Audrey Williams