2007-12-18 01:43:47 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The short answer is that it depends on who is looking at the light.
Get ready for some hard to accept but still true predictions from relativity.
You see the light from your own headlights travel away from your vehicle at 186,000 miles per second, and you would expect a person standing still way out in front of you to see that light coming at him at 372,000 miles per second, but he doesn't see that. He sees both you and the light coming at him at 186,000 miles a second. Time and distance are not absolute, only the speed of light is. Normally you think that speeds add up so that all people agree on the time and distance but see different speeds. But relativity says not true! It says that the SAME time and distance must be seen by different people DIFFERENTLY so that the speed of light is always seen as the same, even by people moving past the light beam at different speeds themselves. Relativity predicts that time would stop for you if you could move at the speed of light. So what the person standing still really sees is you frozen in your vehicle, your hand on the switch but not moving, and the light from your lights not leaving the vehicle at all, while you see yourself moving normally and the light going out in front of you normally.
Believe it or not.
2007-12-18 01:48:43 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
First off, you cannot travel at the speed of light. As an object approaches the speed of light, time slows and mass increases until they reach zero and infinity respectively at the speed of light.
So, assuming that you are going near the speed of light, the light from the headlights travels away from at the speed of light, per relativity. This is possible because the faster you go, the slower time passes.
2007-12-18 09:53:59 · answer #2 · answered by Stan Waters 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even if time hadn't stopped for you or the battery the electrons in the wire could never make it from the battery to the bulb. Electricity only theoretically can travel at the speed of light, but it doesn't.
2007-12-18 11:00:38 · answer #3 · answered by adam m 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can't. If you are travelling at the speed of light, time has stopped for you, and so you can't do anything, turning on headlights included.
2007-12-18 09:52:10 · answer #4 · answered by parspants 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The light will not go ahead of the car, but rather will travel at the same speed.
In other words, the headlights will glow brightly but will not emit light in front of the car for you to see ahead, thus rendering them useless.
2007-12-18 09:48:13 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
You will be moving & your headlights will be on. Thats all .
2007-12-18 11:59:43 · answer #6 · answered by Joymash 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the darkness goes away.
2007-12-18 11:44:53 · answer #7 · answered by clavdivs 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
headlights will be before u
2007-12-18 09:50:22 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋