Here's one to ponder?

Question

A Space Craft travelling a light speed (yes its impossible but just imagine it) turns on its headlamps, what happens???

Answer 1

I have been thinking about this forever.

Since light doesn't speed up when you add force to it, it doesn't move faster, therefore it would be like the light would remain in the headlamps.

If you fired a bullet from the ship, it would travel the speed of light plus the speed of the bullet. If the bullet worked the same way as light, the bullet would just stay in its barrel.

That's the modern theory. I belive, however, that light moves infinetly fast, just we cannot percieve anything above 300,000 kilometers per second. I believe the crew would see light moving 300,000 km/sec, but bystanders would see just a flash of light mixed with a space craft all in a blur.

Answer 2

relativity states that the speed of light is always the speed of light.

therefore inside the ship they would see the lights come on normally. outside of the ship they would see the light moving away from the ship at the speed of light.

now what this means for the ship i don't know. since everything is relative.

btw you shouldn't try to apply classical physics to a relativistic system, newton had no idea about relativity.

it is basically an imponderable question since nothing can move at the speed of light, of course if the ship was traveling at half the speed of light it would still be confusing.

someone outside of the ship would have to see that the ship is moving slower than the light and it is as simple as that, i am sure there is some mathematical way to figure it out exactly but i don't know that way... or i'm just too lazy to find it, lol.

Answer 3

No one needs to guess.
There is nothing to ponder.
The crew would see the headlights turn on normally.
An outside observer wouldn't have enough time to see anything go by.
A bullet could not be fired from a craft travelling at the speed of light, because then the bullet would have to fly forward at a speed greater than that of light, and nothing can attain that speed.

Don't argue with me, take it up with both Albert Einstein and almost a century of corroborating evidence.

Answer 4

actualy since space is a vacum you wont see anything you do not actually see light only the objects it bounces off otherwise you would not be able to see anything.
Space ships don't have "headlamps"
How excatly is a person meant to be able to see a ship traveling that fast, people dont see bullets flying throught the air in a gun battle and while a shuttle is alot bigger than a bullet the speed of light is much faster than a bullets top speed
So in summary no one will see anything

Answer 5

The problem with this question really is with the spacecraft travelling at exactly c (the speed of light). It is not just that it is impossible (it would behave, from our point of view, as if its mass was infinite), but it brings in the question of whether the crew would be able to turn on the lights in the first place.

Relativity states that the speed of light (in a vacuum) is measured as the same for all observers, regardless of their motion relative to each other or relative to the light emitter.

In order for this to work, we must accept that time flows differently for observers going at different speeds. Or that lengths are perceived differently by observers going at different speeds. These are two ways of looking at the same issue.

The factor used to find the time rate (or the length contraction) is called the Lorentz factor, usually shown by a Greek letter gamma.
Gamma = 1 / SQRT(1 - v^2 / c^2)
or, if you give the speed v directly in fractions of the speed of light c, you get
Gamma = 1 / SQRT(1-v^2)
This factor was created BEFORE the theory of relativity in order to solve other problems (that are also solved by the theory of relativity).

If v = 1 (meaning the speed of the observer is the speed of light), then gamma is 1/0 (making it infinite or indefinite or undefined).

Any length measured by the observer going at the speed of light is EXACTLY zero. The distance from the Sun to that star that you barely see, out there? zero.

In fact, if you like to ponder: as far as the photon leaving that star is concerned, as soon as it leaves the star, it is already in your eye (from its point of view, the distance is zero).

So, if our crew is still inside the universe, this means that they will have traveled a finite distance which, for them, is zero. The time take to travel a distance of zero? Well, zero seconds, of course.

So, when did they turn on the light? Probably takes at least a fraction of a second to turn on the lights. Let us say one second.

Well for them, time flow has stopped. That one second they need to turn on the light will not have elapsed until they have left the universe.

It is for these reasons that we say (when using the theory of relativity) that an object with mass (including humans) cannot travel at the speed of light. Maybe we'll be able to get close to it. Maybe we'll be able to go faster (although I do not believe that we will -- but I've been wrong before). But we will not be able to go EXACTLY at the speed of light.

Answer 6

It IS posiible to travel at light speed. And nothing would happen to the light, but it might fall of a table.

Answer 7

if both objects are travelling at the same speed then they won't see light in front of them but at the side of the ship travelling along side it at the same speed, well that's what i think would happen, it makes sense.

Answer 8

If anything in front of the spaceship reflected the light back the spaceship would hit whatever was reflecting the light back and be destroyed.

Answer 9

What would happen if they turned their lights on but at the back of the spaceship, would the light appear to be stationary?

Answer 10

From the perspective of the crew, the lights come on as normal.