I thought nothing could go quicker than the speed of light. But what happen when, for example, a car is travelling towards me at x Km/h with light on? The photons reaching my eyes should travel at C + x Km/h ? Am I missing something?
2006-10-10 12:07:50 · 5 answers · asked by Alexis (From France) 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
No.
The speed of light is constant in any frame of reference. No matter how fast you are moving with respect to the source emitting the light, you will always measure the the speed of light to be the same.
In the case of your example, you cannot add the speed of the car to the speed of the light coming out of the head lights...the speed of light is fixed by definition for all frames of reference to be exactly 299,792,458 m/s in a vacuum.
No matter what, the photons of light will always be traveling towards you at c.
What you will experience in the situation you described is a blue shift in the frequency of the light. The light coming toward you will appear to be shifted more toward the blue end of the spectrum than it would if you were observing the light at rest. To opposite shift would occur if you were traveling away from the light source, the frequency would shift toward the red and of the spectrum. But in both cases, the speed of light does not change.
2006-10-10 12:13:47 · answer #1 · answered by mrjeffy321 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light is constant, is it not ?
If the light is moving that does not make the photons go faster. What if the car was moving away from you, would they be travelling at less than the speed of light ?
2006-10-10 19:14:00 · answer #2 · answered by thecat 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Scientists have studies binary stars, which are stars that circle around each other. When one star is moving away from us, the other is moving toward us; however, the time it takes for the light to reach the earth is the same. Apparently, the speed of an object from which light is emitted makes no difference.
2006-10-10 19:12:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
unfortunately when dealing with speeds such as the speed of light, those things do not happen. let me remind you that the speed of light is CONSTANT
(for the Maxwell equations of electromagnetism require the speed of light to be constant)
sorry but you are wrong.
2006-10-10 19:16:48 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lets hope the car did!
2006-10-10 19:10:31 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋