I need this before monday, pleeez help!
2007-02-11 03:56:16 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
False. Nothing is faster than the speed of light. A shadow is created by obstructing light. A shadow will move as fast as the light that created it.
2007-02-11 04:06:04 · answer #1 · answered by All_Dawgs_Go_To_Heaven 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The only thing that is actually faster than light is bad news. Or at least that's what is argued on "the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Seems that some genius figured out how to power starships with the traveling capacity of bad news. But the ships were eventually decommissioned because they were so poorly received wherever they arrived. After all, the didn't just bring passengers and goods, the also brought...bad news!
OK, Now with the joke out of the way: Nothing travels faster than light. A shadow is the pattern left behind in the ABSENCE of light. So a shadow cannot be seen unless a light source is provided to project it. so a shadow and the light casting it travel AT THE SAME SPEED.
2007-02-11 04:02:43 · answer #2 · answered by anon 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't actually know the answer, so I'm just going to philosophize.
It has been said that nothing moves faster than light.
A shadow's speed, however, is difficult to measure. The question is, do shadows actually move?
I would argue that they do not, and thus that their speed has not and cannot be measured. The supposed "movement" of a shadow is merely a shift of an optical effect, caused by light. "Shifting" is not actual motion. The shadow depends on the light to change.
If the lights go out, the shadows disappear (or they take over... however you choose to see it).
God bless.
2007-02-11 09:26:10 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is certainly true that a shadow can exceed the speed of light. But a shadow is in a sense a human construct - neither information nor the light associated with the shadow exceeds the speed of light.
2007-02-11 04:03:46 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
True.
Since non material things do not contain matter or information that is relayed from place to place, the light speed limitation is not violated.
You have the same "freedom" if you were to take a laser beam and wave it around at a distant target, say the moon. The spot on the moon can be made to move across the surface of the moon at a speed greater than the speed of light, but it is the illuminated bit that is changing, there is no motion involved.
2007-02-11 04:00:40 · answer #5 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know for sure, but it could be said as much as if you were projecting light at an object and the place where the shadow is projected is far away because the light would be blocked first by the object and then have time to go to the place where the shadow is, and if the distance were significantly large I think it could be shown to do so. However this is just a thought from my hangover
2007-02-11 04:00:12 · answer #6 · answered by Modus Operandi 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
False. Some non-marterial things like shadows are actually created by light, or (as in the case of shadows) from the lack of light. There is nothing known to man that moves faster than the speed of light.
2007-02-11 04:08:52 · answer #7 · answered by Mark S 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
your statement not accurate. first of all, light and shadow are words which indicate the presence or absence of photons (a material thing). second, there are things that travel slower than the speed of light (they have subluminal velocity) and, theoretically, things like tachyons that travel faster than the speed of light (they have superluminal velocity). one of the difficulties with particles that have superluminal velocity and particles that have subluminal velocity is that it is not clear if they can interact. if we cannot interact with particles that have a superluminal velocity, how would we detect them?
A tachyon (from the Greek ταχύς (takhús), meaning "swift, fast") is any hypothetical particle that travels at superluminal velocity. The first description of tachyons is attributed to German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, but it was George Sudarshan[1][2] and Gerald Feinberg[3] (who originally coined the term) in the 1960s who advanced a theoretical framework for their study. Tachyons have recurred in a variety of contexts, such as string theory. In the language of special relativity, a tachyon is a particle with space-like four-momentum and imaginary proper time. A tachyon is constrained to the space-like portion of the energy-momentum graph. Therefore, it can never slow to light speed or below. To date, the existence of tachyons has been neither confirmed nor explicitly ruled out.
2007-02-11 04:30:39 · answer #8 · answered by michaell 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good question, but I don't get it...I answered it so I can keep track of it and find out if it makes any sense!
Anyhow all I know is: a shadow is formed by either an object blocking light OR interference!
2007-02-11 04:21:42 · answer #9 · answered by Yahoo! 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think anything can exceed the speed of light.
2007-02-11 04:01:18 · answer #10 · answered by billybob 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋