Is it correct that if you travel at light speed, times comes to a standstill?

Question

Does time come only to a standstill for the travellar at light speed or does it looks to be standing still for the ones who stay behind?

Answer 1

Yes, objects (like photons) that travel at the speed of light do not experience the passage of time. In the objects reference frame it would be as if the journey took place instantaneously. "The ones who stay behind" will experience the normal passage of time within their reference frame. What about from the object's point of view? Well, the object doesn't have a point a view, because for it the journey is instantaneous. It won't be aware of the "ones who stay behind."

Answer 2

With special relativity questions such as this one, it all depends on your frame of reference. Since nothing with mass can ever attain or surpass the speed of light according to special relativity it makes it a little difficult to ascertain.

However lets assume you have managed to reach 99% light speed. If you're travelling at 99% light speed, then to you it'll look like the outside world has slowed down and stopped. However to everyone else it'll look like you've slowed down and eventually stopped.

This is a function of time dilation, for a more detailed explanation see this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation.

Answer 3

IF one could travel at the speed of light, he would never know it because no time would elapse for him. Interesting thought... from the point of view of a photon, the Universe has no thickness, because it takes no time to go from one side to another...

Answer 4

You can't travel at the speed of light.

Answer 5

i have traveled at light speed when I was on acid one time and time did stop for at least a few hours

Answer 6

Einstein once stated that it is possible to go faster or slower than the light, but it is likely impossible if you travel the same as the speed of light.
im not sure what he said will happen though but if light didn't makes time stand still for itself or for the one who stay behind... what makes you think you can?
hope this might help...

Answer 7

"You" cannot travel at the speed of light.

Answer 8

Yes, in a way you will not have aged but millions of years will have passed.

Answer 9

time never stands still.

Answer 10

The following is kinda long but it is easy to read and interesting.

TWIN PARADOX

There is an apparent paradox in the realm of physics relative to physical time. It has to do with time passage for a person moving at the speed of light for a particular period of time, and about a twin not moving at that speed.

In order to understand the physical time difference change between twin brother and sister (the brother Joseph and sister Jubie) we shall consider Joseph as he prepares to leave for a nearby star five light-years away, while Jubie during that time stays at home on Earth. We shall begin with Joseph's spaceship. Joseph found a manner by which his spaceship instantly begins moving at the speed of light for a predetermined period of time and then stops when and where he wishes (impossible to instantly move to the speed of light, and impossible to reform into mass). He has a load capacity of five tons weight which the spaceship is able to return to Earth with.

Jubie and Joseph are twenty years of age when Joseph begins his trip to a planet reported to be composed completely of gold and platinum. Joseph determined that all he would need for food during his ten year, round-trip, journey would be two large, fresh doughnuts and a large cup of hot coffee. Jubie waves bye to him and the spaceship disappears. Joseph has begun his journey.

Joseph, moving at the speed of light for a period of five years realizes no time lapse between the point at which he began his trip and when his spaceship stops automatically, landing precisely where he wishes upon the planet composed entirely of gold and platinum. Realizing where he is, and that the trip was a success, Joseph takes a sip of his coffee, but finds it too hot to drink, so he eats one of his large, fresh doughnuts and then orders a robot to gather five tons of gold and platinum and store it in the storage hold. Within the space of five minutes, the robot scoops up five tons, closes the hatch and self-stores away. Within a time frame of ten minutes the reason for visiting the planet has been accomplished and Joseph is ready to return home to Earth.

Instantly the spaceship accelerates to the speed of light, then five years later automatically reappears at the exact spot where it had left ten years earlier. According to plan, Jubie is waiting for her twin brother. Instead of just Jubie waiting for him, there is a stranger standing beside her and each Jubie and the stranger are holding the hand of a child. While considering the situation of his sister, Joseph takes a sip of his coffee that had begun the trip with him ten years earlier and finds it still hot. Then while un-strapping himself from his restraints he takes a few bites of the yet fresh doughnut that had also begun the trip with him.

Upon meeting Jubie, Joseph learns that the stranger with her is her husband Fred, and that he and Jubie have been married for eight years and the children belong to them. Also, it is obvious that Jubie has aged during the ten minutes he has been gone (according to his clock) though Joseph says nothing of this; and Jubie realizes that Joseph appears exactly the same as when he left. He is even wearing the same clothes. What physical change takes place within a person moving at the speed of light (as Joseph) that causes them to no longer physically age?

To begin, now that Joseph and Jubie are together on earth once again, they will age at he same rate. Were Jubie to take a trip to the same planet as Joseph, then when she returned to Earth she and Joseph would appear the same age, and Joseph would be waiting with his wife and children for Jubie to appear ten years and ten minutes after her departure. Jubie's children would at this time be teenagers and her husband likely would have a few grey hairs, and it all comes about due to a person moving at the speed of light.

When Joseph accelerated his spaceship to the speed of light (in reality it cannot be done) there remained no more potential for energy to move in any direction. His craft would have been converted into electromagnetic energy from whence it was formed. If there is no possibility of energy movement within a mass there exists no such thing as physical time - time requires change in order for it to be effective, it is a phenomenon that exists only in relation to mass. Joseph would not age because there could be no change to his physical body. The coffee would not become cool because no change could happen to it over a period of no-time, the same reason why a doughnut would remain fresh after a period of ten years. It was as though he had ceased to exist for ten years, then came back to existence.

This same concept of lack of energy transfer is found within a frozen mass. Because energy (in form of heat) is excluded, there can be no process of change in a frozen object. Everything within the mass remains in just one spot all the time, unmoving, like as when a mass accelerates to near the speed of light, and energy change becomes impossible as there exists no manner for the mass to change by agency of energy. We find that as a mass moves close to the speed of light that one of three dimensions practically disappears. Because it is necessary for a mass to have three dimensions to exist, physical time proportionately begins to disappear as does one of three dimensions.

Jubie, Joseph's sister, evidenced change in time by being married, having children, and then showing signs of physical aging. This happened to her because energy within the mass of her body brought about continual change all during the ten years Joseph was traveling. Joseph learned nothing new during that ten year period and nothing new happened to his body. Jubie gained a husband, children and experiences, Joseph gained nothing personal.

The twin paradox has to do with the state of matter over a long period of time for a particular individual, but the paradox could directly apply to a mass frozen by means of the absence of all heat energy.