Ok, I am shining a torch into an opaque box. Then, I take the lid and SLAM IT SHUT at faster than the speed of light. Will the light get trapped in the box? What happens if i do a same experiment but at exactly the speed of light?
2006-07-22 16:47:53 · 7 answers · asked by junvic 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
What if the inner sides were mirrors?
2006-07-22 16:56:37 · update #1
Neither you nor anything of any mass whatsoever can even hope to move faster than the speed of light. Even to accelerate up to the speed of light is something of an impossibility.
If you are just wondering if you can trap light in a box lined with mirrors, then yes. Think of it like this, say you just built a really friggin long box in outer space that was lined with perfect mirrors (say it's like 3 * 10^9 meters long so it would take a photon about 10 seconds to reach the other end).
You shine a light in at one end of the box and you do this for 1 second. Now you have plenty of time to close the box and trap the light.
Obviously you don't need this extreme of a set up but I think this little thought experiment makes why trapping light is possible fairly obvious.
2006-07-22 17:02:14 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The opaque material that makes up the box absorbs the light. Some of it may be re-emitted after the box is closed, but all the photons would eventually be absorbed and the energy transferred into heat.
In other words, the box gets a little hotter.
2006-07-22 23:52:09 · answer #2 · answered by Jim H 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The light has been absorbed by the sides of the box and turned into heat. If you silvered the sides of the box, even with 99% reflectivity it would still bounce around until it was all absorbed. Maybe with a super-reflector that reflected 100%?
2006-07-22 23:51:19 · answer #3 · answered by rscanner 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wouldn't it be the same as switching off a light bulb inside a box?
2006-07-22 23:51:17 · answer #4 · answered by Coffee-Infused Insomniac 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Uh, cutting off the light source will cancel the light effect.
2006-07-22 23:51:34 · answer #5 · answered by bond_adambond 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
NO, just like if it were sound you would stop the flow of wave/particles. It would die at the speed of light.
2006-07-22 23:51:13 · answer #6 · answered by digitalhandout 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you need to go and make me a sandwich......tooooo silly, or maybe your reflexes are too slow.....I have caught light in a jar many, many times.....lighting bug.
2006-07-22 23:54:24 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋