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if your traveling at the speed of light what would you see? can you hear yourself talk if your travelling at the speed of sound?

2006-11-12 14:05:26 · 6 answers · asked by s w 4 in Science & Mathematics Astronomy & Space

6 answers

You would be affected by relativity

The principle of relativity, which states that there is no stationary reference frame, dates back to Galileo, and was incorporated into Newtonian Physics. However, in the late 19th century, the existence of electromagnetic waves led some physicists to suggest that the universe was filled with a substance known as "aether", which would act as the medium through which the vibrations traveled. The aether was thought to constitute an absolute reference frame against which speeds could be measured. In other words, the aether was the only fixed or motionless thing in the universe. Aether supposedly had some wonderful properties: it was sufficiently elastic that it could support electromagnetic waves, and those waves could interact with matter, yet it offered no resistance to bodies passing through it. The results of various experiments, including the Michelson-Morley experiment, indicated that the Earth was always 'stationary' relative to the aether — something that was difficult to explain, since the Earth is in orbit around the Sun. Einstein's elegant solution was to discard the notion of an aether and an absolute state of rest. Special relativity is formulated so as to not assume that any particular frame of reference is special; rather, in relativity, a system appears to observe the same laws of physics independent of an observer's velocity with respect to it. In particular, the speed of light in a vacuum is always measured to be c, even when measured by multiple systems that are moving at different (but constant) velocities.


Einstein has said that all of the consequences of special relativity can be found from examination of the Lorentz transformations.

These transformations, and hence special relativity, lead to different physical predictions than Newtonian mechanics when relative velocities become comparable to the speed of light. The speed of light is so much larger than anything humans encounter that some of the effects predicted by relativity are initially counter-intuitive:

Time dilation — the time lapse between two events is not invariant from one observer to another, but is dependent on the relative speeds of the observers' reference frames (e.g., the twin paradox which concerns a twin who flies off in a spaceship travelling near the speed of light and returns to discover that his twin has aged much more).
Relativity of simultaneity — two events happening in two different locations that occur simultaneously to one observer, may occur at different times to another observer (lack of absolute simultaneity).
Lorentz contraction — the dimensions (e.g., length) of an object as measured by one observer may be smaller than the results of measurements of the same object made by another observer (e.g., the ladder paradox involves a long ladder travelling near the speed of light and being contained within a smaller garage).
Composition of velocities — velocities (and speeds) do not simply 'add', for example if a rocket is moving at ⅔ the speed of light relative to an observer, and the rocket fires a missile at ⅔ of the speed of light relative to the rocket, the missile does not exceed the speed of light relative to the observer. (In this example, the observer would see the missile travel with a speed of 12/13 the speed of light.)
Inertia and momentum — as an object's velocity gets close to the speed of light, it becomes more and more difficult to accelerate it.
Equivalence of mass and energy, E=mc2 — mass and energy can be converted to one another, and play equivalent roles (e.g., the gravitational force on a falling apple is partly due to the kinetic energies of the subatomic particles it is made of).

2006-11-12 14:12:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2 0

Nothing with mass can travel at the speed of light. Dismissing that, time (as seen by the external observer) slows the closer you get to the speed of light, so time would seem to stop.

With time at a stop, sound could not travel, you couldn't sense anything (see, hear, etc.).

2006-11-12 14:09:20 · answer #2 · answered by Radagast97 6 · 0 0

you can hear yourself talk at the speed of sound, speed is relative due to position, if you are traveling at a constant speed, past the sound barrier, picture dropping a quarter in a moving bus, the coin falls straight down even though you are moving, becaus it is moving at the same speed you are and the same speed the bus is. Sound would act the same way. I assume light would be the same also, although you can't really test that.

2006-11-12 14:11:05 · answer #3 · answered by savage 2 · 0 1

If you were in open space at the speed of light you would see nothng as you would be out running anything you could see such as where you just left from. At that speed you would only see blips on yuor memory.
If you were in a space craft traveling at the speed of light you would only see things in the term of time, not actullly observing it. The science fiction stories are right about a
lot of it. A space craft would be traveling so fast the navigators could only locate,and program their craft to land in that area at which time they could see (after leaving light speed travel) . While they were traveling everything would be either a blur sitting inside looking out. or inclosed inside the craft with no external view you would only view everything inside the craft as they aged relevent to the time your trip took.
At the speed of sound anything you spoke would be past you as you spoke it and you would not hear it. How ever were the craft inside not effected than your voice would appear as normal. If the entire craft was inclosed in a vacume from the outside with normal amosphere inside sound wopuld be normal as you moved.
But to travel speed of light or beyond is only spectulation as far as humans knowledge goes and only the actual act will ever determine the truth.

2006-11-12 14:20:58 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

No material object (..anything with mass) can travel at the speed of light.

2006-11-12 14:38:01 · answer #5 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0 0

sturdy sufficient. Time does now not pass slower for speedy gadgets. evidently to you, assuming you'll be able to desire to be table sure, that ingredient is passing slower for speedy gadgets. If there are no accelerations reward - each and every thing is often shifting on the equivalent speeds relative to a minimum of one yet another - then there is not any thank you to tell who's moving and who's at rest. Now the twin paradox, which you variety of paraphrased here, has 3 accelerations in it. you start up from entertainment and accomplish an somewhat extreme velocity. After a time, you swap around this means which you slow down, you momentarily stop, and you velocity as much as a extreme velocity lower back. for this reason you attain earth and slow to a stop. At each and every acceleration, you adventure achronic which the earthbound individual does not so it is sparkling who's in circulation and who's at rest. for this reason, you are going to return after 10 years it sluggish maximum smart to seek for out that a lots longer time has handed in the worldwide. Now megastar trek assumes there is the thank you to adventure exterior of the 4 dimensional area that defines the universe - the so-prevalent as subspace. in this subspace, relativity does not persist with - that's exterior the universe fantastically lots - so which you'll be able to desire to pass from ingredient to element in a finite quantity of time and, the time it takes to traverse the hollow as measured by making use of the starship's clock could nicely be the time that elapses in the universe - variety of not likely despite the fact that essential in case you're writting one hour long television episodes. there is not any evidence for this sort of commute use in favorite individual trek.

2016-10-17 05:12:19 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

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