Suppose a fan is oriented exactly perpendicular to a light source and is as long as the speed of light and is powered on. What would happen to a photon passing by the fan?
2006-06-14 07:22:20 · 3 answers · asked by bow_wow_wow_yippieo_yippiea 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
So if a fan blade would hit a photon just right would it hit a home run? Or fly out? Or hit it foul?
2006-06-14 07:57:27 · update #1
It would pass inbetween the gaps in the fan. Nothing moves faster than the speed of light. So saying a fan goes the speed of light, well ok, but light will still move faster than the fan. It's like holding a regular fan infront of a light souce. You get sort of a flickery strobelight affect on the far wall.
2006-06-14 07:26:46 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is a technical mistake in ur question. the fan has to be going faster than the speed of light to hit the proton. according to the theory of relativity, anything that goes faster then light travels backward in time. This would cause severe complications like movin backward, and hitting the photon before it reached it, etc. etc. But suppose it does hit the photon right, the photon will be knocked into the new direction.
2006-06-14 15:16:43 · answer #2 · answered by Neil 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A French scientist actually determined the speed of light by a similar experiment in the 19th century, I can;t recall his name.
2006-06-14 14:32:14 · answer #3 · answered by ag_iitkgp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋