Why isn't the light on a cars headlights considered to be accelerating to exceed the speed of light?

Question

Since you add the speed of the car plus the speed of light, that should result in the light traveling faster than the speed of light

Answer 1

sorry but huh? didnt get that one

Answer 2

Einstein says that physics can be explained by two rules
1.) The speed of light is the same for all observers, in any frame of reference (whether you're moving, the source is moving, or some mixture of the two)
2.) The laws of physics are the same in any non-accelerating frame of reference.
If a train is moving, and someone on the train bounces a beam of light off the roof, the distance the light traveled will look different if you're on the train (straight up-and-down) or on the ground (forms a triangle). Since the speed of light has to be the same, and the distances traveled appear different, the conclusion is that the train's clock measured less time than the other guy's clock--on the train, time is moving slower. Eerily, we can use the same technique to say that time for the guy on the ground is moving slower than on the train; just point the beam so it's stationary (up-and-down) with respect to the ground. Counterintuitive, freaky, and well-supported by all the data we have collected to date.
Basically, Newtonian physics work well enough for everyday life, so we really don't have to figure out all the conclusions we can draw from relativistic physics.

Answer 3

Light just does not work that way. It travels the same speed regardless of whether the source is moving ahead or backwards.

What happens instead is that the amplitude of the light waves is squeezed closer together if the source is travelling forward, and elongated farther apart if moving away. This is called blue shift (compressed) and red shift (elongated).

It is the same concept with sound waves. When a train is moving toward you the whistle is higher pitched, because the sound waves are compressed together. When it passes, the pitch drops, because the waves are farther apart. The sound waves themselves do not (as far as I know) change speed.

But, the speed of light in a given medium is always constant. It just seems to be a fact of our universe.

Answer 4

Einstein got it right. The speed of light is constant for all observers regardless of their motion. Light is, in fact, the only phenomenon that behaves this way. You can't add the car's velocity to the speed of light (the way you would add it to the velocity of anything else in the car) because the speed of light is completely unaffected by any motion of any object emitting light.

Answer 5

to respond to this question you will possibly want to devise an test the place you will possibly desire to wisely degree the fee of the mild emitted from the headlights of a shifting automobile. this assist you to appreciate if the fee of light is plagued by the fee of the mild emitter (headlight). if the automobile became travelling at 50km/h and the fee of the emitted mild became measured to be speed of light + 50km/h then your answer could be sure. make experience? It extra helpful reason my ideas hurts. i'm gonna bypass lay down now.

Answer 6

Welllll, in fact if you are dealing with the speed of light from a source, you start with the source at some given point instataneously when the beam goes outward. Successive waves of light go out as the point of origin moves forward...yeah that is true...

So for purposes of your argument you want to argue the difference between 186,000 miles/sec

and

186,000.0166 miles/sec for light from a car at 60 mph???

Really now...

Answer 7

You're politically correct. But comapring our car speed to the speed of light, I believe you can pratically ignore the speed of our car since the light still is traveling at the speed of light.

Answer 8

You'll learn all about reference frames and the absolute value of the speed of light if you make it through your lower division work and take an upper division course in Special Relativity.


Doug

Answer 9

Well, no since the headlights ( the source) is moving not the light that is emmitted.

Example:
You run at 4 km/h
A truck is travelling at 100 km/h
You are running inside the truck, but you cant say you are running at 104 km/h because you are still running at 4 km/h

Hope it makes sense

Answer 10

It simply isn't.

You can do the arithmatic all you want, but it still doesn't change the nature of light.

Kind of like when kids argue about who can think of the highest number possible, and one kid says, "Infinity."

The other kid says "Infinity plus one."

And the first says, "Infinity plus two!" and so on.

The argument is nonsense. No matter how many times you say, "... plus, " whatever, nothing is higher than infinity.

Answer 11

Dopplers effect does not work for light waves.