two planes traveling at speed of light could the one in front look back and see the other ones lights?

Answer 1

No. The lights of the trailing plane cannot exceed the speed of light and, thus, cannot overtake the lead plane.

Einstein thought about an object at the speed of light and what would be observable from it. His answer was nothing. Everything would be at rest that would be also traveling at the speed of light.

Answer 2

I am going to go with yes, you would still be able to see the light from the plane behind you, you should be able to see the light from it as well, however I don't think they could see the light coming from their plane and nor would the front plane see their light either as they are both traveling as fast as the light goes itself, it does not go any slower or any faster so it should be right there , but what do I know anyways it just seems to make sense to me

Answer 3

It would be physically impossible for a plane to travel at the speed of light. As an object travels faster, its mass increases, so at the point of light speed, mass would near infinite, and the forces acting upon it would crush it into oblivion. The only reason light can travel at light speed, is because light has no mass.


Also, in some areas of space, light speed is faster than in others...


Strangely enough, in some instances Light acts like a particle, suggesting it should have a mass. Which blows everything through the window. Maybe light particle duality is a divine phenomenon. Holy light? maybe. No one has explained it yet.

However in response to your theoretical question, the light emitted would be beamed from an object travelling at lightspeed, much like when you throw a ball when running, as opposed to throwing it from a standing start, the ball travels much faster. Similarly the light would also travel at 2x the speed of light. So it would appear normal.

But as said noone will ever travel at lightspeed so who knows? maybe everything will turn into waves like light.

Answer 4

So aside from the fact that physical objects can never move at the speed of light since getting to that speed requires literally an infinite amount of energy, and the fact that the universe shrinks to the size of zero at the speed of light (so that you and the plane behind you would be at the same spot')...

Yes, regardless of the speed you're travelling, as long as it is a constant velocity, you will be in an intertial reference frame, and the speed of light will be a constant 3E8 m/s in that reference frame. That means that you will be able to see light emitted from the plane behind you since it will reach you at 3E10m/s. However, some very funky time dilation stuff will result.

Answer 5

An observer on the front plane would see a light shone from the rear plane. In addition, an observer in the rear plane would see a light shone from the front plane.

This is because in their frame of reference, both planes are stationary and light travels at the speed of light within that frame of reference. Observers outside their reference frame see funny stuff.

Answer 6

Yup, it could. And, the one in back would receive the light from the one in front in the same time as though they were standing still. The light being emitted from an object traveling at the speed of light behaves as though the object is sitting still. It's one of the things interesting about relativity.

Answer 7

I see light travelling at the speed of light now, l am not stationary, l see street lights at distance with no useful light, and save for the sun l see stars with no useful light, so it would seem that three things may occur, that light would spectrum shift, and intensity would depend on coherence, and also would arrive in packets rather than a steady stream as gravity bent the light paths.bit like a badly tuned radio but that could be wrong..nice to think about though

Answer 8

No.

Einstein stated that nothing can travel at the speed of light, exept light itself. One of the reasons being that as you approach the speed of light, your mass decreases. Light is made up of millions of quantum particles that have no relative mass, so it can travel at this speed of 300,000 km/s.

It would therefore be impossible for either of the planes to travel at c, the speed of light, and hence, there is no need to concern oneself with an impossible hypothetical. In the words of a great engineer:
"I cannae change the laws of Physics"

Answer 9

yes, the back one can see the front one since the light has time to travel to him. The front one can't see the back one because the one behind him is the speed of light plus a bit of time behind him.

Answer 10

Nope.

The speed of light is a maximum speed. Compare this the following. Say a gun shoots a bullet at 200mph. You have gangster chasing you and your both driving at 200mph. If they shoot at you then their bullet will be traveling at 400mph and thus it will catch up with you.

However, being that the speed of light is a maximum for light to travel, the trailing plane'ss speed cannot be 'added' to the speed of the light being emitted because it is already traveling at maximum speed.

Hope this helps!