2006-09-14 03:41:34 · 21 answers · asked by The Grinch 1 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Other - Cars & Transportation
there's an echo around here.
2006-09-14 03:43:31 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
So I'm thinking if your point of reference is inside the car then the headlights would work at the speed of light relative to you being inside the car irrespective of how fast the car is traveling. In practice, do our headlights work any less when we drive 10 mph than 100 mph (granted it's nowhere near the speed of light)? It's just our reaction speed is so long that traveling at a high rate of speed makes the need for headlights illuminating a short distance negligible. With airplanes we hear the sonic boom after the plane goes by because our relative point of reference is outside the plane and the plane goes faster than the sound travels. But asking a pilot who has broken the sound barrier as to if he hears anything might help answer this question. That's what I'm thinking, but isn't physics supposed to function differently at the speed of light anyways?
2006-09-14 04:34:19 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, were you to be able to travel at the speed of light on a dark night, your headlights would probably work. However, and this is a big "however", you would not need them. By the time you saw anything you needed to avoid while driving, you would have already hit it and been vaporized. Consider you are traveling at 186,000 miles per second = 669,600,000 Miles Per Hour. Human reaction times vary but let me suggest 8 milliseconds is fast.
So your reaction time might be 10 milliseconds.
And in that brief blink of time you have traveled roughly 2000 miles. Nope, you will never see the speck of dust that kills you and turns your automobile into minute cosmic particles.
2006-09-14 03:59:50 · answer #3 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, yes and no.
Yes, your lights will still turn on (assuming that your car hasnt blown to peices going at the speed of light) But the light from the headlights will not travel faster than the speed of light (the speed at which you are traveling) to provide any benefit from turning them on.
Now if light traveled at different speeds I would be wrong.
2006-09-14 03:51:59 · answer #4 · answered by god_doesnt_love_erudite 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The light would have to travel at 2 X C.
2006-09-14 03:54:32 · answer #5 · answered by Munster 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nope... the speed of light is the fastest possible speed. If you are traveling at that speed... the light being generated from the headlamps will not shine ahead. Now... if it was a bulb that radiated light in all directions... then the light would trail backwards but in actually the light ions would remain in the same place....
Chew on that for a while!
2006-09-14 03:45:30 · answer #6 · answered by wrkey 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can not travel at the speed of light. If you changed the question to " almost the speed of light", then the answer would be yes; relative to you, the lights would work just as they always have worked.
2006-09-14 03:44:13 · answer #7 · answered by bruinfan 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Cars don't travel at the speed of light.
2006-09-14 03:44:58 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes and no. Theoretically they should, from your point of view, because you have to measure light as going the speed of light. But at the same time, as you're already going the speed of light, it would take infinitely long (objective time) for them to illuminate anything ahead. This is only one of many strange problems you run into when you assume things can move at the speed of light.
2006-09-14 03:44:13 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I you can get your car to go that fast i don't think whether your headlights work or not really matters? i`d be more interested in if the flash on the speed camera worked?
2006-09-14 03:47:17 · answer #10 · answered by Christ 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The headlights will still work if I don't take the car with me.
2006-09-14 03:48:45 · answer #11 · answered by Gone 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋