What is the closing speed of two beams of light approaching each other?

Question

Remember nothing can go faster than light

Answer 1

Relativistic effects only pertain to the light beams frame of reference. To an outside observer, it would be 2c

Answer 2

186,000 miles per second times 2 , each beam is still just going the speed of light , the nothing in the middle closing is what your measuring not the light beams . and saying that nothing can go faster than light is like a cave person saying that nothing can travel faster than the speed on sound which is slow compared to light .. Light is just the top speed that we can measure so far at this point in time like a ruler measuring a foot

Answer 3

It depends upon your frame of reference:
If the measurement frame is not that of either of the beams of light then Special Relativity demands that, in that frame, the beams of light each have the same velocity (of light!) denoted by "c". If they are approaching "head-on" as it were, their closing speed will be 2c, MEASURED IN THAT FRAME.
If the measurement frame is assumed to be that of one of the beams of light, then there is a real problem.
Applying the Lorentz transformation to a frame of reference moving at c will tell us that, looking forward, the beam of light will "see" the entire universe compressed into zero distance, including the oncoming other beam, and looking backwards there will be nothing. Infinite doppler blue-shift and infinite doppler red-shift will apply.
However, as only light (and maybe gravity) travels at the speed of light, then postulating such a frame of reference would not be "physical".

Answer:- 2x c

Answer 4

The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant denoted by the letter c for constant or the Latin celeritas meaning speed. Light travels slower than c through all other transparent mediums; the ratio of c to this slower speed is called the refractive index of the medium.

In metric units, c is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second or 1,079,252,848.8 kilometres per hour. Note that this speed is a definition, not a measurement, since the fundamental SI unit of length, the metre, has been defined since October 21, 1983 in terms of the speed of light—one metre is the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. Converted to imperial units, the speed of light is approximately 186,282.397 miles per second, or 670,616,629.384 miles per hour.

Answer 5

c.

Note that in relativity, the sum of two velocities u and v is given by (u+v)/(1+uv/c²). Suppose u=c. Then (u+v)/(1+uv/c²) = (c+v)/(1+v/c) = c(1+v/c)/(1+v/c) = c. So the speed of light relative to anything else (including another beam of light) is the speed of light.

Answer 6

volocity of the two beams is simple if you know the two distances of the light and the angle and speed relative to the arc of gravitional flux or magnetic flux area by the way a magnetic field can be accelerated faster then the speed of light because it control it.

Answer 7

Think of it this way...

You stand between 2 very powerful lasers, each of which is precisionally pointed at your ears and down each others barrel.

In that instantantaneous second you push the switch to activate the the beams they go in one ear and out of the other and as you slump to the ground with a very nice tuning forked shaped head.

(commensurate with a perfectly vertical fall that is, gravity plays funny tricks on you if you fall sideways)

As you fall you ponder on the perfectly aligned beams as they are now frying the crystal in the barrel of each other and you begin to wonder... lol

Answer 8

Their speed relative to each other is twice the speed of light, but their absolute speed will still only be the speed of light.

Answer 9

Their closing speed is twice the speed of light.

Since closing speed is a mathematical concept that puts a quantity upon two separate physical velocities, no violation of faster than light velocity occurs. Mathematics is free to roam as fast as it wants to!

Fun question, thanks for asking it!

Answer 10

About 14 mph