Speed of Light?

Question

Theoretically let's say that you were in a space ship going just under the speed of light.

You are strapped in and no part of you can move
There is a mirror in front of you and you can see your reflection.

Then, you hit the speed of light.

Do you still see your reflection? I'm assuming you do.

But what if your chair is moved backward six inches

do you still see anything?
The way i see it, your eyes are now where your head used to be, and since the light is moving at the same speed you are, the area that used to be occupied by your head/body should now have absolutely no light in it.

What if you move to the right or left, do you see what you would have seen at time of the space ship hitting the speed of light had you been sitting there?

and to the smart ones who ripped me at the end of this, and said "it'll never happen"

thats why i said "theoretically"
but thanks for contributing

Answer 1

First Question: you would not see anything, Speed of light is a constant, but what happens is shifting. as an object moves away from you it is shifted toward the red, going toward the object you shift toward the blue spectrum.
Since you are travelling just below c it would be severely blue shifted, into the gamma wavelength toward the mirror, and pass through. ( some would be reflected back but now severely red shifted.

Next Travelling same speed. since the mirror and you are travelling at c, the photons never reach the mirror, and theoretically no image.
but at the moment you reach c, and if no shifting occurs, you would see a frozen image of yourself.
At c other factors come into play, time is frozen around you,
Photons only exist for a fraction of a moment, and only exist at the speed of light, once they decrease in speed, time now begins to advance, and the photon decays.

Answer 2

You are doing well to ask this question, although I can only try to answer it. Einstein did thought experiments like this all the time. I think that because you are in a space ship, the laws of physics inside the space ship apply to it and it contents and differ from the physics outside of it. I think that things should appear normal inside the ship. I have always been confused by these. In Einstein's example about a train heading toward a lightsource, the front of the train always collides with the light at the speed of light, no matter how fast it is moving. For example if two cars collide, and each is going 55mph, they colllide at 110mph. But with light it is different, according to Einstein. Colliding with light at C (speed of light) while you are going 55 doesn't equate to a collision at C + 55. It equates to a collision at the speed of light.

Answer 3

ok strangly the answer is that you would notice nothing. assuming you could move at the speed of light (which you cant) if the mirror is located inside your space ship, then you would be moving 0mph compared to the mirror and it nothing would appear to change on your ship since nothing on the ship is moving relative to you. if you were moving toward the mirror at the speed of light then you are right you would actually appear in front of the mirror before the light reflected off of you gets to the mirror and the mirror would not be able to reflect back at you the light from your body.

Answer 4

If you are in a spacecraft going near the speed of light, everything looks normal to you in your space craft. As you hit the speed of light (which is not possible according to Einstein) everything would still look normal to you within your spacecraft. Just like everything seem normal to you traveling on a jet. It isn't until you look outside the space craft you see some strange things. Everything you can see gathers in a 'tunnel' of vision in front of you red shifted at the edge and blue shifted at the center (or maybe vice verse, I don't recall).

Answer 5

It is consideration of just these kinds of questions that motivated Einstein to formulate his theories of relativity. But the theory predicts such strange things that most people do not understand and so they simply say he was wrong. Yes, they say they know better than Einstein how the universe really works! Well, they can do that. After all, who is ever going to go even 10 miles per second much less 186,000 miles per second. So it is just a bunch of hot air.

Anyway, you cannot ever reach the speed of light. In theory, if you did, time would stop for you and distance in the direction of your motion would shrink to zero for you. So none of your assumptions apply. Basically, at the speed of light, you are everywhere in the universe at once, and you exist at every moment in time at once. Speed, position, and time cease to exist for you. You have no time to move, no space to move in. If you magically reached the speed of light, traveled for a year at that speed and then stopped, it would seem to you that you were instantly transported a distance of one light year. People back on Earth would see you traveling for a year at the speed of light but frozen like a statue the whole year. You yourself would simply find yourself instantly in another place a light years away without having traveled at all, like being teleported or something. If you believe Einstein. If you don't, I can't enlighten you.

Answer 6

Ah, you wish for us to be strapped into our cockpit very tightly, and then move like a tai kwan do kick fighter, back and forth, from side to side...yes, I see... And all the while we are moving along at or nearly at the speed of light...Hmm-m, let me just ponder that for a moment...there...I thought about that.

Answer:

Take 2 more Haldol tablets, wash down with Mineral Water and two Tylenol. Call your doctor in the morning.

Never happen dude.

Answer 7

If a flashlight is traveling at the speed of light, and if you switch on the flashlight, then:
a) the light coming out of the flashlight is traveling at light speed
b) the light coming out of the flashlight is traveling faster than the flashlight itself, as seen from the flashlight
c) the flashlight itself is still traveling at light speed

It seems to be a contradiction but it really isn't. It's all relative, hence Relativity.

Light and sound are NOT similar. There is a sonic boom, there's no "lumic boom".

Answer 8

Definately see your reflection. Its relative to your surroundings... if your surrounding are traveling at constant velocity you won't even know the difference from that or being still. Its accelleration that creates a force.

The only way you wouldn't see a reflection is if your space shift accellerated faster than light can.

Answer 9

Madojo: Isn't that Einstein's point? With light, relativity doesn't apply... The speed of light is a constant regardless of the observer.

Answer 10

This is similar to being on a jet (say the Concorde) travelling faster than Mach 1. You can still carry on a conversation, even though you are moving faster than sound. Within your environment, there is no relative motion, so there is no effect.
You will be able to see your reflection.