2006-10-06 10:53:11 · 26 answers · asked by yeahbutnobut 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The car cannot travel the speed of light, beacause when the occupant of the car turn on lights, they will work, and the light will travel away from the car at the speed of light relative to the car. It will also be travelling at the speed of light relative to a planet the car just passed.
The time and distance measurements do funny things to make this possible, but the car will always be going slower than it's headlights.
How fast are you moving now? Relative to what? From some frame of reference, you are now travelling at half the speed of light and yet cannot detect it.
We do not have an absolute frame of reference.
2006-10-06 10:59:22 · answer #1 · answered by Holden 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
it's impossible for any object to travel or even come close to the speed of light. But if a car was travelling at the speed and the headlights were turned on, it would not be seen as the light and vehicle are both travelling a the same speed.
2006-10-07 07:59:09 · answer #2 · answered by kkd 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The lights will come on, but the light will go nowhere. Although Einstien states it will, not many people believe this time-delay stuff any more as he has left out so many cosmic forces including the basis of gravity from many of his theories.
Nobody knows the answer to that, it;'s believed they will work to you, but not to anyone else, but as I say there is so much detail left out that many professors won't teach his work now, and after a few months of studying it even I (the lay-man) have a hard time believing it. Time may alter, but so may the shape of space, or the visions perception, or perhaps the speed of light ios not constant. The only proof of time travel was so minor that it's widely achnowledged that the Atomic clock used could havbe been affected by pressure changes during the flight in Concorde.
2006-10-06 20:58:15 · answer #3 · answered by Bealzebub 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes, the lights will come on. However, it is still being debated in the science community if the light beams will still travel out in front of the car. This would mean that light is traveling at twice the speed of light. The other option is that the light will not leave the bulb and simply built up. Then what? Who knows. I personally believe that the light will travel out of the bulbs and therefore travel at 2x light speed.
In reality, we'll all be dead by the time that happens.
P.S. The gas mileage would probably be horrible at that speed!
2006-10-06 17:55:04 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Depends what you mean.
If you mean from the driver´s point of view, well, yes they do - the trouble is that the driver doesn´t think he´s going at the speed of light.
If you mean from another observer´s point of view, standing on some planet and watching the car whizz past, I don´t think he´d be able to see much of either the car or the headlights. But if they were travelling, relative to the observer, at a bit less than the speed of light, the observer would see a squashed up car and headlights badly shifted into either the red (coming) or blue (going).
I think....
2006-10-06 20:00:09 · answer #5 · answered by mervnotmerv 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The theory of relativity is summed up as follows: The observed speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers in all points of reference. Therefore, the driver would observe the lights as working normally. An observer relative the whom the car is moving at the speed of light would see the light as never leaving the headlights. One consequence of this apparent contradiction is 'time dilation'. The 'fixed' observer would see the driver as having time slowed to a stop. The driver would see the 'fixed' observer as having time slowed to a stop. Both observers believe everything is normal for themselves.
2006-10-06 21:17:57 · answer #6 · answered by STEVEN F 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes the speed of light is always the same. it would move away from the car at an equal speed weather the car is moving or not.
the speed would also be the same relative to me or a planet or another car or anything else.
2006-10-06 18:22:45 · answer #7 · answered by z 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
itis impossible t go at the speed of light for some psychis reason thing i can't remeber. However the lights would work but the light would not pass from the bulb. this is because light isn't effected by momentom as traditional things.
2006-10-08 14:03:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ask Mcfly he did it in his Delorean. Seriously though I think the light will go out past the car at 2x speed.
2006-10-06 21:36:54 · answer #9 · answered by Michael R 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In theory, they would work, but you would not be able to see them, because as the car is (hypothetically speaking) travelling at light speed, then light would not be able to over-take it.
2006-10-06 18:43:55 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋