I don't understand why Light travels at the same rate regardless of the speed of the source or observer?

Question

My physics textbook mentions that this is a fact, however, it doesn't explain why.

This seems counter-intuitive, but is stated as a fact since experiments prove this to be true.

Why? How is this possible?

Answer 1

Well first off all, obviously it goes the same speed regardless of the speed of the observer, if you are walking and I start running it doesn't make you slow down any.

I'm not sure how correct this is but I belive it the right explenation.

The reason a stationary person sees light traveling at the same speed as a person who is moving faster would be because of the "time dialation" effect caused by moving at very fast velocities. The person "chasing light" would experience time slower relative to the person standing still. So as the speed of light relative to him decreased, the time is increasing, so he still see's it as traveling at the same speed.

The speed of the source doesn't matter simply because light is always going at the speed of light.

To doug:
I've never even heard of those equations but I'd like to think I can understand the concept of "I go fast, time go slow", or "I go fast, I get fat"

Answer 2

Same confusion that haunted me.Though i am not clear abt it ,i can try to explain it why? Have in ur mind if this one satisfies u,
else ignore it.
At relativistic velocities intuitively the velocity of light's gotta go down & of course some 1 in a stationary frame of reference would see that light's velocity compared with u decreases yet to u the time slows down.U would feel that every thing is going on right. But only some one in a stationary frame of reference will know that u are slower.Hence
any distance u measure(of course u would measure it shorter thanthe 1 in stationary plane)in a unit time (again which is shorterthan the former)would finally yield u the velocity of light

Answer 3

That is the way it is, so there is no why as such. It is a fundamental property of nature.
It is counter intuitive IF you start with your current appreciation of how speeds seemingly add at macroscopic scales, for non relativistic speeds.
Remember that these concepts (speed addition, light speed being constant for all observers in all cases, etc) were relatively fairly recent development (about 100 years only), so that was not an obvious fact.

Answer 4

The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant denoted by the letter c for constant or the Latin word celeritas meaning "swiftness". It is the speed of all electromagnetic radiation in a vacuum, not just visible light.

Light travelling through a medium other than a vacuum travels below c as a result of the time lag between the polarization response of the medium and the incident light.

Answer 5

Hehehe. Wait until you get to the bit about time moving at different rates in different inertial reference frames. Then it will all make sense.

Seriously, An introduction to Special Relativity is something that you'll probably get to around the end of your 2'nd year of University Physics.

Meantime, Google 'Special Relativity' and you'll probably find a few sites where they explain some of Einstein's 'thought experiments' that lead to SR. Right now, you simply don't have the math background to actually 'derive' the time-dilation equations and the Lorents-Fitzgerald contraction equations. (I'm not trying to sound 'elitist', there was a time I didn't either. Nobody is born knowing this stuff. You have to learn it the old-fashioned way ☺)

HTH

Doug

Answer 6

You're right, it is counter-intuitive, but it's nevertheless true. The speed of light is a fundamental property of the universe, and, as far as present-day theory has it, cannot be exceeded by significant amounts of matter. And, as you said, it remains the same regardless of the speed of the source or observer. I know, it's weird!

Answer 7

In technological awareness, our information of ways that the universe works has to start up someplace. There ought to be some issues that we use as postulates, commencing factors to describe each and every thing else. The invariant velocity of sunshine is a sort of. And if between the observers is moving at 0.99c relative to the different, then so is the different. there is not any difference between relax and uniform action. velocity purely has which means whilst measured relative to a minimum of something else, and is on no account significant on its very own, a l. a. "one observer is moving at 0.99c." consequently it truly is termed "Relativity."