say there was like huge 30 foot red clock and in the middle of the night, one person stands 20 feet away, and the other goes 60 miles away (in the desert), gets a pair of binoculars and looks at the red letters of the clock...They are talking on a cell phone....will they both see different times? since it'll take the light a longer time to take to see?
2007-07-27 10:08:05 · 5 answers · asked by erwafredsfdsfsdf 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Assuming the clock is extraordinarily accurate (millionths of a second at least), then at any given time, they will see different times showing on the clock. The catch, however, is that they would never be able to communicate this to each other. Although cell phones signals do travel the speed of light, they must pass through a satellite and processing center before reaching the other phone. So instead assume they have walkie talkies, which actually do broadcast radio signals to each other at the speed of light. Then when the closer person says the time, by the time the radio signal reaches the far person, the far person will see that time too. Thus they will think they are seeing the same time.
2007-07-27 11:45:05 · answer #1 · answered by G M 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Technically they would see a different time, but the difference would be much less than one second, because light travels 186,000 miles a second. But the radio waves on the cell phone also travel at that speed, so if the guy at the clock said...... NOW, when it was exactly noon, you would hear him say that at the same moment you saw the clock strike noon in your binoculars, even if you were a million miles away. Because the light from the clock and the radio waves carrying your friends voice both take the same amount of time to reach you.
2007-07-27 10:16:40 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
They will se the same time because the difference due to thetime of light travel is so small. It would take about 1/3000 of a second for light to travel 60 miles. Cell phone radio waves have to go through a repeater system that increases the time to complete the call. I don't care what Cingular says.
2007-07-27 10:24:59 · answer #3 · answered by Renaissance Man 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
If they were 186,000 miles separated, their perceptions would differ by 1 second. It will still differ in your situation, but not by a noticeable amount.
Campbelp: cell phone signals do not travel at light speed, they are not light. Stand next to someone and talk to them on a cell phone, there's usually a 1-3 second latency.
2007-07-27 10:19:07 · answer #4 · answered by Pfo 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
i'd have to say no because the speed of light is a whole lot faster than even the second hand on a clock!
2007-07-27 10:16:26 · answer #5 · answered by J J 1 · 3⤊ 0⤋