If you're traveling the speed of light, and shine a light forward, does the light travel away from you?

Answer 1

i thnk you might find the answer in reading some of the works of einstein and his theories of relativity. if you are travelling at the speed of light, relative to you any other light is still travelling at the speed of light and so yes, it would travel away form you.

Answer 2

The question cannot be answered as asked since you assumed in the question that in some frame of reference, something is traveling at the speed of light…which just cannot happen.
In no frame of reference can anything with mass ever travel at (or exceed) the speed of light in a vacuum.

It is also important when discussing topics like this to always state your frame of reference when trying to make a measurement. When I say frame of reference, I am talking about the different possible observation points one could be in. For example, “you” can have a frame of reference in which everything around you in moving…but in your own frame of reference, “you” are always standing still as you are not moving with respect to yourself. Another, very common, frame of reference is the ground. You could say that you are traveling at ____ miles per hour in a in a car and it is often assumed that you mean “with respect to the ground” as opposed to “with respect to Mars”.
I bring this topic up because in your question, you did not specify a frame of reference for the observer or in which frame his speed was measured in. This does make a difference.
If the observer is traveling in the same frame as the light which is turned on…then their relative speed is zero and nothing interesting is happening. But lets say that the observer is “stationary” (notice the quotation marks) and that the speed measured is actually the speed of the light with respect to the observer. Now something interesting is going on.

If we modify your question into a more answerable form,
“If you are traveling at JUST UNDER the speed of light with respect to some other reference frame and turned on a light, would the light move away from you and, if so, how fast?”
This question is answerable.

A key thing to remember here (besides that nothing can exceed the speed of light in any frame of reference) is that the speed of light in constant in all frames of reference.
In other words, no matter how fast you are going compared to anything else, you will always measure the speed of light to be constant! This has quite an important implication. This means that even if you were traveling at a speed of 99.9999999999999% of the speed of light (and you could add even more 9s to the end of that if you wanted), you would still measure the speed of light to be the same.
So the light would still be traveling away from you at the speed of light as if nothing was unusual.

Answer 3

I am not totally sure but I think it would...a similar thing would be if a fly is inside a car going 100 mph the fly can still fly from the back to the front of the car as long as it is inside the car. Its speed is increased by the speed of the car making it possible for the fly to fly from back to front.

Light is a little different though. If you apply the fly scenario then yes it would shine. but then can light travel faster than light in this case? this is a question for Captain Kirk of the Enterprise...

Answer 4

you does not be able to work out it infront of you b/c gentle does not inhibit % of shifting gadgets for example in case you had a custom shifting 30 mph and on that practice an rc motor vehicle shifting 4mph the entire % of that motor vehicle may be 34 mph b/c of the practice shifting below it on the different hand once you've a lamp on good of that practice the gentle waves may nevertheless travelat the speed of sunshine devoid of being inspired by technique of the speed of the practice this concludes that the speed of the motor vehicle does not influnce the gentle coming from the headlinghts yet because they are traveleing on an same % not one of the gentle may bring about illuminating the line or inspite of it really is infront of you. And anyhow your eyes and mind won't be able to see and procedure issues that quickly.

Answer 5

No, since you are holding the light source, pointing it forward and moving at the speed of light, then the light will always be immediately in front of you. However, it will be dark in front you since you will get there the same time as the light. From your perspective, the light will be in the same plane as you.

The big question is, did you turn the light on before or after you reach the speed of light?

Answer 6

Yes, the light travel away from you at the speed of light. This is what they mean by saying that the speed of light is constant.

Answer 7

Indeed it does, and it travels away from you at "the speed of light", or at least it APPEARS to. This is why space and time become "curved", since nothing can actually travel faster than light...

Answer 8

Nope - this is one of the main postulates of special relativity. c (the speed of light) is a constant, regardless of any motion of the light source.

Answer 9

if you are traveling at the speed of light and you turn your headlights on...will they work?

Answer 10

Noppers.

Think about it this way. What if you were driving a car and your friend began driving ahead of you at the same speed? Would she begin to pull away ahead of you?