2006-11-30 11:24:52 · 27 answers · asked by ftwsebftg 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
you couldn't drive at the speed of light. But if you could drive near the speed of light, and turned on your headlights, light would leave your car at the speed of light relative to the car. Einstein asked this very same question (except I think he used a train). ANYWAY......this seems paradoxical and impossible. But it's not....because TIME and SPACE (and distance and mass and all other measly "constants") change in order to make this possible that the speed of light still remain a constant.
P.S. - Don't expect to understand all of this at once. I'm pretty bright and it took me quite awhile to catch on to just how it works.
2006-11-30 11:30:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
All of the previous answers are wrong...this is the basic principal of relativity. If you were traveling at the speed of light, or as close to it as possible the light from your headlights will move away from you at the speed of light. This is due to relative motion. You may not notice at that speed but the time which you feel has elapse may be normal but for an outside stationary observer time has elapsed much faster. Without going into a bunch of mathematics lets say you experience 5 minutes at this speed they will observer years of you traveling so basically the light you see moving away from you will seem to be at light speed and the light you emit from your headlights will also be at light speed. This is not a paradox because it is impossible to travel at light speed so if you are going a hair less time is almost stopped for you to an outside observer even though you feel that time is elapsing normally. I am not making a whole lot of sense but it is right. If you seriously want more info, any book by Hawking, Einstein, or for an easy read which is very interesting try either The Elegant Universe or The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. He is a fantastic author and physicist working toward String Theory.
2006-11-30 11:40:25 · answer #2 · answered by Texan Pete 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, the bottom line is that a car can't go the speed of light according to relativity. This is because objects become more massive as they move faster and thus require more energy to propel them. As an object approaches the speed of light it becomes infinitely massive and requires infinite energy to move at the speed of light, which is impossible.
But let's just say that a car is going speed of light. To an observer on the ground, time in the car has stopped (because time slows down as things go faster), so the observer would never see the lights come on (because everything's frozen). To someone in the car, yes, the lights would turn on. But please understand how ridiculous this scenario is: to the person in the car, the entire world is passing by at the speed of light, frozen in time! Just like the world sees him frozen in time!
So I repeat: a car couldn't get to the speed of light in the first place.
2006-11-30 12:28:48 · answer #3 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The light beams will appear to you the same way they do if you were travelling at 20 mph. The speed of light is constant from all frames of reference.
From a stationary observer, they will see the car and the light travelling at the same speed.
There are other elements to consider here such as mass, length, and time, but I don't want to geek out on you.
2006-11-30 11:36:35 · answer #4 · answered by MaStur 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Over the night sky, I will see you with my supertelescopic neutrino tachyon ray gun and shoot you down since you just turned on your headlights and be careful when you round the corner around alpha centari, LOL. Because when you round the corner it will have to shoot out your headlights because you're driving way too fast but the cHP being the celestial highway patrol will let you get away since you heeding the speed light highway limit.
2006-11-30 13:20:29 · answer #5 · answered by Mako 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
With the right "inverse Tau" you could match speeds equalling that of light speed or even faster, but as was said, your lights would be usless because light can ONLY travel as fast as light speed.
2006-11-30 11:36:55 · answer #6 · answered by AdamKadmon 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you have eyes in the back of your head you be able to see where you have been! And this is a great answer considering that driving at the speed of light and having eyes in the back of your head are equally likely.
2006-11-30 11:34:45 · answer #7 · answered by americanhistoryfan 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
This is not an answerable question. Nobody knows, because it is not physically possible for an object with non-zero mass to move at the speed of light.
2006-11-30 11:33:38 · answer #8 · answered by Mark H 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
you receives pulled over with the aid of the police. As for the headlights, they are going to be on, yet no mild will leave them as you're occurring the same speed, its like throwing a ball in the front of you and then operating after it on the same speed, its relative position does no longer replace.
2016-11-28 02:36:21 · answer #9 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing as even light can't travel faster than the speed of light.
2006-11-30 11:50:14 · answer #10 · answered by mohavedesert 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋