Physics question #10

rustyfarmall

Well-known Member
Didn't want to hi-jack the other threads, so I started a new one. Here's the question.

If you are riding in a vehicle that is moving at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, will the illumination provided be in front of you, or will it be behind you?
 
Because you are already travelin' at the speed of
light, the light will move ahead of you at the
speed of light so it will still go out in front of
you. The two vectors add together to get the
result.
 
I was thinking, if you are traveling at the speed of light....why do you need to turn your lights on? If you are going to run into something you wont be able to stop in time any way lol ;)
 
Don't know about me, but if SWMBO was traveling at
the speed of light, with or without headlights,
she'd run into something......
 
If the speed of light works similarly to the speed of sound, the light wouldn't go ahead. Sonic booms follow a jet going faster than sound. Results may vary.
 

e=mc/2 so the light would turn to pure energy?? Or on the verge or would it simply be plus 2 instead of times 2...
 
(quoted from post at 23:46:29 11/24/14) Didn't want to hi-jack the other threads, so I started a new one. Here's the question.

If you are riding in a vehicle that is moving at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, will the illumination provided be in front of you, or will it be behind you?

My thought would be that a passenger in the vehicle would see the light going out, no matter what the speed of the vehicle. The light would still be leaving the source (the vehicle) at the speed of light.

To a stationary bystander, the light would be approaching at twice the speed of light. But once the vehicle passed it would become invisible because no light could catch it to reflect back to the eye of the viewer.
 
(quoted from post at 15:50:20 11/24/14) Because you are already travelin' at the speed of
light, the light will move ahead of you at the
speed of light so it will still go out in front of
you. The two vectors add together to get the
result.

I think you have the answer.

Gene
 
The speed of light is faster than the speed of sound, so that would mean that you couldn't hear your wife talking to you while you were driving. I'd vote for that!
 
If I remember correctly Einsteins theory says you can
only approach the speed of light never actually
attaining it as mass increases causeing a slowing
effect due to resistance. But it has been a long time
since atomic physics in college.
 
"Thou shalt not add thy speed to the speed of light." The light would not leave the headlights (forward anyway). The speed of light is in theory, absolute.
 
Speed is relevant only to a point of reference in the universe. If the object emitting the light is moving away from that point at the speed of light, and the light is being emitted away from the original point, the light being emitted is traveling at twice the speed of light relative to the original point. If the light is being emitted toward the original point, the light is not moving at all.
 
The speed of light is a constant. Independent of your inertial frame of reference. If a light source is moving towards you at say, 1/2 the speed of light, you would still measure the light you see at the speed of light. Approx 3 million meters per sec. It would not be 1.5 times that. The light would be shifted towards the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. The reverse is also true, if a bright light was moving away from you at any speed, below c (the speed of light in a vacuum) you would still measure it at c. 3 million m/s. It would be shifted towards the infrared end of the spectrum. It's appearance can be altered not it velocity.
 

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