After watching a futuristic in-space movie, I wondered what if.......If you were in a vehicle - any type of vehicle - that could travel the speed of light, and you turned on the headlights, what would happen?
2007-06-21 13:48:51 · 8 answers · asked by Derail 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
You can't actually reach the speed of light, but let's assume you are extremely close to the speed of light. From inside the vehicle, you will observe the light travelling away from you at the speed of light. From outside the vehicle, the light from your headlights will also appear to travel at the speed of light. This can happen, because time inside the vehicle will pass much slower than it does for an observer outside the vehicle, and speed is given by the change in distance over time.
2007-06-21 14:00:23 · answer #1 · answered by Tim N 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The logical answer is that the lights will take no effect but Albert Einstein said that the speed of light is the same for all possible speeds (<300.000 km/sec). So it is the same as the vehicle was stopped. The time goes really fast for outer people and the space is flexure.
2007-06-21 21:04:02 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, first of all, its impossible because...
a) you couldn't even move, so you couldnt turn on the headlights
b) you would die
c) You cant travel the speed of light
BUT WAIT!!! lets forget all of this, and pretend that you are in a conversion photon suit, and that your vehicle has no mass, and that you had to accelerate to the speed of light. There. So you turn on the lights, but nothing happens anyway because the light never reaches your eyes. But of course, when at the speed of light, time stops, and you'd lose your emmory or something like that.
2007-06-21 21:20:16 · answer #3 · answered by The Ponderer 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
According to "classical" (pre-Einstein) physycs, no light would be able to escape from your headlights.
But according to more modern physics, the scenario is impossible--physical law prevents your vehicle from traveling at the speed of light.
If you were to travel at 99.999% of the speed of light (this is not forbidden by physical law), then the light would still leave your headlights at the speed of "c" (186,000 miles per second) relative to your vehicle. Modern physics says that light (in a vacuum) travels at speed "c" in all reference frames.
2007-06-21 21:02:10 · answer #4 · answered by RickB 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
it depends on the method that you would be traveling faster than the speed of light,
if it were a worm hole, you would just be at your destination, and light would just work like normal, and you might not care what the headlights were doing.
if you were manipulating space, then we really do not know, but my guess is that the light would be just lost, just like it is when your lights are not pointed at anything.
2007-06-21 21:50:04 · answer #5 · answered by sweety_atspacecase0 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My guess would be that the headlights would simply not emit a beam of light. There just wouldn't be any noticeable difference whether the headlights were on or off.
2007-06-21 21:01:09 · answer #6 · answered by weeezin da juice 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
the lights would take no effect on the vechicles travel
2007-06-21 20:54:11 · answer #7 · answered by blue_mustang_12 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
IF you were at the speed of light, time would cease and you could not "do" anything - change anything. grok?
2007-06-21 22:45:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋