if you are in a car and you where traveling at the speed of light and you turned the head light on what would happen, would you see the light. the best answer will get 10 points.
2007-03-05 22:16:07 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
hey its the newtons principle....the discovery channel documentry...
if ur travelling through a speed of light in a car..and if u put ur head light on, the light again travel with speed of light from u...means its..
UR SPEED+speed of light..
now if u wana reach at the end of the light emiting from ur head lamp, u ve to travel in a greater speed then the light ray have.
Means its clear that u can never beat the speed of light....
2007-03-05 22:19:15 · answer #1 · answered by som 2 · 0⤊ 5⤋
Yes!
Simply because the speed of light is relative to where you are so even if you are going at the speed of light the light from your head lights would travel away from you at the speed of light again!!!
You might think this means that the light from the head lights is travelling at 2 times the speed of light but this is not the case!
Time instead has slowed, which then means that even though you are travelling at the speed of light, light can travel away from at the speed of light!!!!!
I somehow get the impression you already know all of this from the way your question is worded, or it homework of some sort!!!!
2007-03-06 06:32:26 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light is 186,282 miles a second. It is the ultimate speed limit of the universe. If you were to switch your head lights on I don't think the connection in the lamps would be made. Any light from within or outside of the car would not move ahead of the car as to do so would be violating the laws of physics as nothing can travel faster than light. (the speed car is already travelling) energy needs become infinite the closer the approach to light is made, so to exceed this is believed to be impossible
2007-03-06 20:03:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is impossible for any massive object (that is one that has mass) to travel at the speed of light, and theoretically for anything travelling at the speed of light time would stop. So if there was a massless conciousness, no it wouldn't see anything as time would be stopped, while it was travelling at the speed of light.
However if you were travelling very close to the speed of light, you would in fact experience it in exactly the same way as in a normal car (in terms of speed) due to relativity. (this predicts a constant speed of light for all observers).
One problem would be the Doppler effect (a change in the frequency of the light caused by relative motion between the observer and source). As the only way you could see light would be through reflection off an object in front of you, if that object was stationary and you were travelling towards it at nearly the speed of light, the Doppler shift would move the light to a very high, non-visible frequency (similar to x-rays) so in that respect it wouldn't be visible, so no you wouldn't see it.
2007-03-06 08:46:09 · answer #4 · answered by jameskeates2000 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. And from your perspective it would lookcompletely normal and would travel away from you AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT!
When considering travel close to the speed of light, the important things to remember are, whose perspective you are taking into account, and that time slows down more the faster you travel.
At the speed of light time everything would seem normal for you, and so would the beam of light. You would see everything else around you happen infintely fast though. So for example if you were driving your car around the solar system in circles you would watch the last 4 - 5 billion years of the sun and earth's evolution past extremely quickly. And when you hit the brakes, there wouldn't be much to go home to!
2007-03-06 06:47:30 · answer #5 · answered by joel7681 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You will... because you would always be behind the headlights and you are going as fast as it is. So, that 'path' difference remains constant and you will continue to see it.
Imagine you are going in a car and there is another car in front of you that is travelling at the same speed. You will still see the car though it may 'appear' that it is stationary (imagine you don't get to see the environment surrounding you).
That's as dumb as I can get....
In reality, laws of 'relativity' are not applicable to objects travelling at light speeds. So, there is nothing relative to you. So, you WON'T see the light from the headlights and 'anything' for that matter...
2007-03-06 06:27:24 · answer #6 · answered by sdbskrl 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've heard this one explained. If you're travelling at the speed of light then so are the headlamps and so it would make no difference, the light from them would still shine out. However, if there's another car that's going sublight, they would seem to have stalled and would be standing still as you passed them.
2007-03-06 06:26:16 · answer #7 · answered by elflaeda 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you were traveling at the speed of light, you would already be light, so turning on the headlights wouldn't do anything from the standpoint of a stationary observer. Basically, you're attempting to ask the question - what happens if you change the frame of reference to the speed of light?
2007-03-06 06:23:29 · answer #8 · answered by chrisatmudd 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No.
if you travel at the speed of light you will see nothing but darkness. when ever we see some thing we are really seeing into the past. but if we are travelling at the speed of light then the light will not have time to get to your eyes or reflect off of anything so you will see absoloutly nothing.
2007-03-06 10:11:54 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you are going at the speed of light, when you turn on your lights, the light leaves your vehicle at the speed of light RELATIVE TO THE SPEED OF YOUR VEHICLE: and you, since you're in the vehicle, would see the light. Same thing of you shine the light in the reverse direction.
2007-03-06 07:20:49 · answer #10 · answered by david37863 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God how many people need a basic understanding of general relativity.
Peeps-the car is travelling at the speed of light relative to some observer who would see both the car and the light beams (if they chose some set up to measure it's speed) streaking along the road at the speed of light. The observer in the car is stationary with respect to the headlamps and the light would appear to streak away from them at the speed of light if they chose some set up to measure it's speed. Otherwise we would have an experiment that could distinguish inertial frames.
Also why do so many people seem to think time stops-don't they get that time dilation is a relative effect.
Again peeps-I rush past you at the speed of light, as you look at me I appear fixed and motionless, time doesn't seem to pass for me. But likewise as niether of us can distinguish our absolute state of motion it is valid for me to say you rushed past me at the speed of light and appeared motionless and static and so I rightfully conclude that your time has stopped. If I were to change my state of motion this I can measure and now know that my state of motion has at some point been different to yours wether that was slowing or accelerating to reach your speed I cannot say, but I can say a force was acting upon me.
And also nothing is said that an object with mass cannot travel at the speed of light simply that an object with mass cannot be accelerated from a speed less than that of light to the speed of light as that would require an infinite amound of work to be done on said object.
However in answer to you question no you won't see the light-it's moving away from you at the speed of light!
2007-03-06 18:19:23 · answer #11 · answered by zebbedee 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋