What happens when time stops as you approach the speed of light?

Question

If time stopped, should light be moving?

On the other hand, if light wasn't moving at the speed of light, then time would never stop, right?

If time were stopped, it would be the same as freezing time.
If you froze time, shouldn't there be nothing going on?

Case in point:

Going the speed of light = time stops. Time stops = nothing changes, it always stays the same? But how is this possible if light is still moving at the speed of light?

Perhaps time is not really stopping?

Are we wrong about the theory of time?
Is this why there has not been a workable time machine invented yet?

Answer 1

its all theory and doesn't matter for practical application. We can't even approach 0.1*C with current tehnology.

Light travels 186,000 miles per second. The fastest we have achieved is a couple of thousand miles an hour.

Thats not fast enough to even do decent testing of the theory of time dilation due to speed. Insturment error is enough to account for any differences.

Bring this question back in about 1000 years when we have "Warp Drive"

Answer 2

Time wouldn't actually stop, but you would alter the Space-Time Continuum by appearing to be in two places at once (the place you were in when you accelerated past the speed of light and the space you would newly occupy when you decelerated below the speed of light). That's how it would appear to an outside observer and to you if you looked back at the space you used to occupy. Sounds pretty cool, but that illusion would only last until the light travels from where you used to be to where you moved to. Pretty fast (about the speed of light).

It's kinda like the speed of sound: When you're far away from something that makes a loud noise (such as an explosion), you SEE the explosion before you HEAR it. That doesn't mean there were two explosions (the first one silent but visible, the second one audible but invisible). It was one explosion that APPEARED to occur twice (once visibly, once audibly).

Traveling faster than light, you appear to be in two places at once, provided the observer can see point A & point B with equal distance from him/her to each point (such as you moving across a horizon faster than the speed of light but your starting point & stopping point are equal distances from the observer.


As far as time-travel goes, that too would be an illusion. If you could look at a giant clock in space, then back away from that clock at exactly the speed of light, the time on that clock would appear to stop. Accelerate faster, and the time on that clock would appear to go backwards since you would be seeing what has aleady taken place, but the image of reality (what the clock truely says at that instant) hasn't reached that location you are viewing the clock from.

That would be proof that time is an illusion of itself.

Did that make sense to you?

I tried not to oversimplify it.

Hey, you get that time machine fired-up, g'me a call!

Answer 3

Classically we think that time is separate and absolute with reference to space which is also considered as absolute. But think of any timing device. Is it independent of space? You consider all kinds of clock. Each one of them involves some periodic event occurring in space with reference to material particles. What about light or a photon? light itself is a timing device which exists irrespective of matter. In the frame of a photon time stops or space shrinks both mean the same thing. Time and space become one at that speed for other speeds there are two descriptions one pre-relativistic which considers time and space as absolute and independent. This description is approximate but we do not see any discrepancy. But as the speed of the object increases, this description does not match with experiments. Relativistic description which involves 'c' as a constant characteristic of space-time unification (in analogy of h which is the characteristic of quantum description) matches with the experimental results/observations. If light is considered as wave it is everywhere at the same time. If it is considerd as photon then it is everywhere at the same time or it is in zero space at all time. It sounds very mind boggling, but how can you verify this because you can never sit on a photon and observe the world!

Answer 4

The reason the theory is called "Theory of relativity" is basically because it is ...well, relative. As you approach the speed of light "your" time slows down, so you will always see light moving away from you at 300,000 kilometers per second. An outside observer would measure light as moving away from you at a slower pace as you approach the speed of light, because he is not moving and, therefore "his" time has not been altered.

Answer 5

Most people still don't get it. The time dilation only works between two measuring systems. If I saw you moving close to the speed of light, I'd notice that your clock was running slow compared to mine. If you looked at my clock, you'd see the same thing. For either of us, our own clocks are running at normal speed.

Answer 6

You seem like a reasonably bright individual. Let me suggest to you that you take enough Physics to get into a course on Special Relativity. Then you'll really *understand* all of the answers to these questions. In particular, you'd understand the meaning of 'inertial reference frames' and how they appear to someone in a different frame.

HTH ☺

Doug