2006-09-19 09:31:23 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
you will hear a click noise when you flip the switch
2006-09-19 09:38:29 · answer #1 · answered by Perry N 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Now, as all good citizens of the world know, nothing (even light) can be accelerated to a speed faster than the speed of light. (See Pseudomancer's phenomenal Theory of Relativity writeup for all the graphic details.) That's what light speed is, and there's no getting around it. However, I believe I have discovered a way of transmitting information over great distances instantaneously.
Lets say we want to send a message to Bob, a friend who lives near Alpha Centauri. Lets keep it simple and assume the message is a basic signal, something like a single flash of light. On receiving the message, Bob will ... I don't know ... feed my goldfish, which are staying with him while my cockroach-infested house is being sprayed. Now, Bob is about 4.3 light years away, so if we point a big laser at him and send a quick flash of light, the transmission time will be 4.3 years.
By then, all the fish will be dead. Clearly we need a faster way of sending Bob a signal.
What if we had a solid rod, 4.3 light years long? We pull our end, Bob feels the tug immediately, and feeds the fish. They survive. Remarkable. Nothing is moving very fast at all, but a message is being delivered to Bob far faster then if it were made of light.
This idea overcomes all problems of communicating over long distances. I know, however, that there are a few problems with this idea. Here are a couple:
Finding enough material to construct a rod 4.3 light years long.
Passing spaceships might interfere with the rod.
Well, I think this idea could make me very rich, so I want to address these two problems now, to help overcome the doubts that the press will undoubtedly have:
There is no need to use a thick rod. A thin one, or even a strand of strong enough material would do, so long as it was not at all elastic. Any elastic material will absorb the pull, especially over very long distances.
This is a problem. To overcome it, I foresee information corridors, into which craft may not fly.
2006-09-19 16:35:34 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nothing. The light would become as we are: the Earth rotates constantly, but we don't feel it, because we move relative with it. If you jump from a moving train, you leave at the speed the train is moving and hit the ground at that speed. But the light travelling forwards would be going at twice the speed of light because of the extra push. This is more likely than any theoretical science crap.
2006-09-19 16:35:23 · answer #3 · answered by Joker 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Until they prove Einstein wrong, it is impossible to accelerate any mass to the speed of light. But if I play along with your question, I'd have to say that the light inside the craft would travel at the speed of light relative to the inside of the spacecraft, not to the outside universe. The problem is that the speed of light is constant, it is not dependent on a frame of reference. So you have a paradox.
2006-09-19 16:52:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The lights would come on as normal. Inside the craft would not be moving at the speed of light.
2006-09-19 20:15:04 · answer #5 · answered by jax 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It would turn on just like other travel the bulb is travel as fast as you are but you feel still because you accelerated to that speed and now you are go the SOL so the light is also going the speed of light.
Therefore when you turn the power on it would light all around you.
2006-09-19 16:40:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
This question has been asked about a million times. To you, the light from the headlights would appear to move at the speed of light; but to someone at rest with respect to you, light from the headlights would be moving at the same speed as the craft.
The speed of light always appears the same in any frame of reference. This is one of the basic principles of Special Relativity.
2006-09-19 16:36:33 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light is relative basically. So if you are travelling at the speed of light 1x10 8 ms-1 then the light emitted from the light bulb will be travelling still be at 1x10 8 ms-1 faster than yourself
2006-09-19 16:41:29 · answer #8 · answered by xanaximenesis 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
you will be blinded ( at least). When you reach the speed of light, your gravity has increased to such an extent that that nothing can escape it, including light : hence you will be blinded. In reality (!) you would be crushed to size well below that of a quark. happy days.
2006-09-19 16:46:42 · answer #9 · answered by rt fm 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
True story: Einsten himslef pondered this question for years and years (except it was a headlight on a bicycle), and it eventually led to his famous E=MC 2
2006-09-19 19:17:34 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If it is in my spaceship, and you switch the lights on, the windshield washer turns on, regardless of the speed.
2006-09-19 16:41:40 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋