my hubby would like to know if your driving a car with the headlights on at the whilst driving at the speed of light, would the headlights still illuminate at the front of the car
2007-02-28 07:51:02 · 16 answers · asked by bikerbch6 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Sure. The speed of light is 300 km/s, no matter which reference point you take.
2007-02-28 08:03:49 · answer #1 · answered by diamond 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Thinking about it logically I would say no. The light wouldn't have time to bounce off the object and get back to the driver if the car itself was moving at the same speed as the light.
However, my sister says the headlights are on the nose of the car and therefore already a way in front of the driver, it would be the same as two cars travelling one in front of the other at exactly the same speed. So the lights would illuminate whats in front as, in theory, the driver would pass point x marginally later than the light. Whether or not his brain would be able to process the delay would be another matter.
2007-02-28 16:03:54 · answer #2 · answered by astrokitty 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light, c, is 3 x 10^8 meters/second.
If driving your car at the speed of light, the lights would remain on because they're attached to the car, but they would not illuminate any space in front of the car because the time it takes for the light to travel is the same time it takes the car to travel (the same distance). The car would have to go slower than the speed of light so there is time for the light to advance in front of the car. It's as though the car is catching up with the light.
2007-02-28 16:29:49 · answer #3 · answered by mariposa 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answers is that the question is based on false assumptions. Many people have said that in any frame of reference light (in vacuum) moves with the same speed.
However, special relativity FORBIDS tying a frame of reference to any object moving at the speed of light. This would cause havoc in the equations.
And there is the fact: if a body has mass it needs infinite energy to achieve the speed of light. So it can't be done.
If a body has no mass, it HAS TO travel at exactly the speed of light. No slower and in no frame of reference can it be different. That's why you can't tie the frame of reference to a body moving at the speed of light. A body is always stationary in its own frame of reference. But, as it has no mass, it must move. Thus, the contradiction.
2007-02-28 16:30:05 · answer #4 · answered by misiekram 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its true to travel at the speed of light itself is impossible however if you were to be travelling at 99.99999999....% of the speed of light you would see the light travelling away at the speed of light (i.e 3 * 10^8 metres per second) because time would slow down for you. however if someone was looking at you from outside the car they would see the light moving away from the car very slowly.
This effect has all sorts of implications in things such as GPS and many of today's other satellite technologies as the satellites are travelling faster time slows down for them and unless the programs take this into effect the system starts to go wrong (in the case of gps i think it would be something like 1m a day which is not helpful).
hope this helped
2007-03-01 17:10:29 · answer #5 · answered by narglar 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes. because the headlights are going at the speed of light but when the light that they generate leaves the headlight it will be going from an apparently stationary point.
2007-02-28 15:56:03 · answer #6 · answered by Spottie 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If the lights were on before you set off then yes they would shine infront of the car, but if they were turned on at the same time as reaching the speed of light , no they would not.
2007-02-28 15:56:52 · answer #7 · answered by Jonathan C 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You can't. Any car (physical object), moving at the speed of light, would have infinite mass, and thus require an infinite amount of force to reach that speed. The subjective increase in mass (along with a subjective increase in size and time) are called Lorentz transformations, and are what make the speed of light unreachable by all physical objects.
2007-02-28 15:56:32 · answer #8 · answered by Qwyrx 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I guess being in front of the vehicle it will always be in front.
As the vehicle is traveling at the speed of light the light would still travell infront as in relation to the light the vehicle would actually be stationary
2007-03-03 08:33:47 · answer #9 · answered by sha2000_uk 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At school in the 1970's we were told it was 367,000 miles per second. However now we are metric it is 299,792.458 kilometres per second but varies on the intensity of the garvitational field. Hope that helps. It is something to do with one of Einsteins theories.
2007-02-28 16:01:20 · answer #10 · answered by Closed Down 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋