Variable speed of light Variable speed of light A variable speed of light (VSL) is a feature of a family of hypotheses stating that the speed of light in vacuum, usually denoted by "c", may in some way not be constant, e.g. varying in space or time, or depending on frequency. A variable speed of light occurs in some situations of classical physics as equivalent formulations of accepted theories, but also in various alternative theories of gravitation and cosmology, many of them non-mainstream. Notable attempts to incorporate a variable speed of light into physics have been made by Einstein in 1911, by Robert Dicke
One-way speed of light Thus the measured value of the average one-way speed is dependent on the method used to synchronize the start and finish clocks. This is a matter of convention. The Lorentz transformation is defined such that the one-way speed of light will be measured to be independent of the inertial frame chosen. Some authors such as Mansouri and Sexl (1977) as well as Will (1992) argued that this problem doesn't affect measurements of the isotropy of the one-way speed of light, for instance, due to direction dependent changes relative to a "preferred" (aether) frame Σ. They based their analysis on a