What do you see?
2006-08-18 17:41:49 · 20 answers · asked by lukezzzzzz 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
A Traffic cop writing a ticket ?
Ok then this deserves a sensible answer that's if any answer to an hypothetical question can make sense. Since the car would be travelling as fast as the light emitting from the headlights then the light would not leave the headlight therefore the road would still be dark !! ( I think )
2006-08-18 17:47:16 · answer #1 · answered by Realist 2006 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not withstanding that you would have reached infinite mass at this point, you would never see the light form your headlights, it would never leave the bulb. In fact, from your perspective, time would appear to stand still. Theoretically, a way to travel back in time is to accellerate beyond the speed of light.
Imagine a highway, and the speed limit is light. Most cars can't go the speed limit, but say you have one that can. Before you enter the highway, you will see cars pass you. As you accellerate, the cars will will appear to be moving slower and slower, until you eventually pace them. Now the cars seem to stand still next to you, and you are all at the speed limit. Now say you can break the speed limit. You begin to move past these other cars, going by cars that had already passed you earlier. If you keep doing this, you will pass cars that you never even saw, because they had entered the highway long before you did.
2006-08-19 00:55:12 · answer #2 · answered by lmn78744 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, to be completely technical...because you would be traveling at the speed of light, the beams of lights from your car would blend with all the other light around, because even at night there is light. There is always light. But anyways, it would seem to be complete darkness, and you probably would not even see yourself or you in the car, because if the car is going that fast, you are. Then again, what is the speed of light really, but a coexistent force the acts upon the universe in relation to all other forces that exist. The speed of light is so fast, that man cannot dream to reach it soon, we can barely scrape at the sound barrier, and the sound barrier, being yet another coexisting force upon nature, is measured in Mach's...as shown by mach 1 or mach 2..etc etc. I hope i have been able to answer your question thoughtfully and thoroughly. Dr Spencer Fairbanks, Phd.
2006-08-19 00:52:54 · answer #3 · answered by spencedizzle 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your headlights explode - sort of.
Following the classic modern physics examples professed since about the 1950s, the tungsten filaments in your light bulbs heat up enough to emit blackbody radiation. However because you are moving at the speed of light the energy is reabsorbed into the black body(the tungsten filament) until the filament itself melts and splatters.
When this happens the molten filament - unable to go faster forward because we are travelling at the speed of light, will eventually have its fragments hit the back of the lamp assembly where it will melt and weaken the lamp casing. The pressure of the noble gas that is also in the lightbulb will then cause the back of the lightbulb to explode through the back of the lightbulb.(heading roughly opposite of the direction the car is going.)
For everyone that said you can see light go forward in front of you - sorry not true. You've already at light speed. The speed of the emitted light plus your speed already would be twice the speed of light... Additionally, to SEE the light it would have to atleast refract off of something and come back to your eye. That wasn't described as part of the situation.
2006-08-19 01:02:58 · answer #4 · answered by special-chemical-x 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
SIGH
You would see your lights as normal, firing out before you at light speed. Observers in cars at normal speeds, or standing on the side of the road, would see your car having no light in front of it from your lights. Why? Because for you, since you are travelling at light speed, time has stopped completely. So, while for you the light from you headlights needs to travel at full speed, for the outside observers, nothing is happening because normal time is passing, and they will see as much light as can pass in a normal time of zero...which is no light.
And that is the simple explanation. I gets much more complicated than that if you would like.
2006-08-19 00:57:02 · answer #5 · answered by iandanielx 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The lack of understanding of special relativity is astounding.
Interesting thought about the speeding ticket. Would you be able to see the blue lights behind you?
Now, to really answer your question. The key thing about relativity is that things are (gasp) RELATIVE. So the answer to this question depends on your point of view. The answer is different for someone on the ground than it is for the driver of the vehicle. First we consider the driver.
But first: As your velocity (v) increases, your mass (m) increases acording to the following formula:
m = m0 / sqrt(1 - v^2/c^2)
Where m is the new mass, m0 is the mass at rest, v is the velocity, and c is the speed of light. This may seem odd that your mass can increase just by moving faster but notice that c is ~186000 miles / sec. So at any speed you are likely to reach in your daily life v^2/c^2 is going to be very close to zero. So close to zero in fact, that it would be impossible to measure with any instruments we have. Note also that as v aproaches c, the bottom of the fraction goes to zero so the mass goes towards infinity. Thus you could not be driving at exactly the speed of light, because your mass would be infinate and exerte an infinate gravitational force on the entire universe colapsing it. Which, I've heard can ruin your day.
So let's assume that you are driving very very close to the speed of light. Consider what happens when you turn on your headlights. LISTEN NOW, THIS IS WHAT EVERYONE ELSE GOT WRONG. The beams of light appear to shoot out from your car at the speed of light as if you wern't moving. This is because light always travels at the speed c relative to any observer. This may sound impossible but it will make more sense in a minute.
To an observer on the ground, the beams of light appear to also be traveling at the speed of light, but since you are traveling at almost the speed of light, the beams of light (from the headlights) do not appear to be getting very far ahead of you.
So in summary, if you were driving at say 0.9*c, to you, the headlights seem to be moving at the speed of light relative to you and therefore moving away from the car at c. To the guy on the ground watching you go zipping by, the headlight beams appear to be moving at the speed of light RELATIVE TO HIM and thus pulling away from you at 0.1*c.
2006-08-19 00:51:35 · answer #6 · answered by selket 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One of the weird things about light is that its velocity is always the same, no matter how fast its source is moving. That means that when you turn on your lights while going at the speed of light the light will move away from the headlights at the speed of light.
2006-08-19 00:49:42 · answer #7 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You will die or get a speeding ticket or jump into the future. but it cant be done cuz driving at the speed of light would require infinite mass and infinite energy so do the math boy and dont ask these silly questions again.
2006-08-19 06:57:17 · answer #8 · answered by Hasnain R 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Same thing as when you turn on your lights and you are standing
still...
You see whatever is in front of you...
Of course if you hit anything at that speed, you have a problem
2006-08-19 00:50:54 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A bright road . cos your speed is the same with headlights'
2006-08-19 02:25:28 · answer #10 · answered by Blacklikeme. 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋