Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe (1999)
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In 1913, Willem de Sitter suggested that fast-moving binary stars... could be used to measure the effect of a moving source on the speed of light. Various experiments of this sort over the past eight decades have verified that the speed of light received from a moving star is the same as that from a stationary star... a wealth of other detailed experiments have been carried out during the past century...

— Brian Greene on Willem de Sitter

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "In 1913, Willem de Sitter suggested that fast-moving binary stars... could be used to measure the effect of a moving source on the speed of light. Various experiments of this sort over the past eight decades have verified that the speed of light received from a moving star is the same as that from a stationary star... a wealth of other detailed experiments have been carried out during the past century..." in the context of "Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe (1999)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Willem de Sitter" (Quotes about Willem de Sitter) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Brian Greene

About Brian Greene

Brian Greene (born February 9, 1963) is a theoretical physicist and string theorist. He has become known to a wider audience through his books for the general public, The Elegant Universe, Icarus at the Edge of Time and The Fabric of the Cosmos, and a related PBS television special.