ma kid brother challenged me 2 this hypothetical question.
2006-10-23 03:21:26 · 16 answers · asked by Another face in the crowd 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Let us work it out. You are travelling at speed in excess of light speed. Light coming towards you will hit your face and bounce off. At normal speed this would hit the mirror and bounce back to your eye but if the mirror and you are travelling faster than the light being reflected from your face it will never reach the mirror so will not bounce off and the mirror will always appear blank
2006-10-23 03:27:39 · answer #1 · answered by Maid Angela 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The question makes no sense because you *can't* travel faster than light. This is not a technological limitation, it is nature. If you are travelling faster than light you are breaking a law of nature, and how can anyone say what other laws of nature would do in those cases?
Not that it is useless to think about this type of thing. It was through similar thought experiments that Einstein convinced himself that the speed of light was unobtainable. According to relativity all frames of reference have identical physical laws - you cannot perform an experiment in one frame of reference to distinguish it from any other (unless it is being acted on by a force). Given this, what you would see in a mirror is just what you normally do, otherwise by performing the experiment of looking in the mirror you could determine that you were moving faster than light.
2006-10-23 10:37:33 · answer #2 · answered by sofarsogood 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Years ago I read a piece in a magazine about a hypothesis similar to this. The writer explained there is a difference between the speed of light and that of it within mirrors ~ and a lot of stuff about mirrors that I just did not understand. ALTHOUGH, what I do remember was that 'your reflection moves slightly (and apparently it's measurable) slower than we do.
So, assuming that you'd have the mirror in in your hand in front of you and would thus be travelling at the same speed, then the difference between you now in front of a mirror, and the you then in front of the mirror, would be 'the same difference.'
Sash.
2006-10-23 10:40:37 · answer #3 · answered by sashtou 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No
You cannot travel faster than light because nothing can travel faster than light.
If, however, you were travelling at the speed of light, the mirror would show nothing since no light could reach it.
If the mirror were 100m away, and you were travelling at 100m/hour less than the speed of light, you would actually see yourself one hour ago.
2006-10-23 10:29:17 · answer #4 · answered by k_j_lane 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
no...reflection is only possible when light rays are involved, hence if u r travelling faster than the speed of light, no light cn reach the reflective surface to produce an image....ur kid bro has sum tricks up his sleeve hey?
2006-10-23 10:34:03 · answer #5 · answered by snowflake 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If possible, you would see yourself because the mirror would have to be going at the same speed as you, so it would all be relative.
2006-10-23 11:43:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, because the mirror and the light itself are travailing at similar speeds, but light has his own original speed, so light is actually travailing at higher speed than the normal speed of light
2006-10-24 09:39:34 · answer #7 · answered by latif_1950 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Surely you would have a face full of glass splinters as the mirror in front of you smashes?
2006-10-23 10:23:50 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes,
the mirror is in the same inertial reference frame as you are and so is the light.
2006-10-23 16:20:27 · answer #9 · answered by Bill N 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
take a mirror with you and you'll find out.
well the theory goes if the mirror is with you and travelling slightly faster than you, then yes.... i remember someone telling me this. i got kinda curious myself.
anyone else with a better answer? coz i've reached my limit
2006-10-23 10:23:40 · answer #10 · answered by fresh_mcgraw 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋