If a photon has consciousness...
and right at the onset of the big bang...a photon was emitted in the explosion and travelled through a vaccum at the speed of light...completely undistrupted ...until right now.
And right at this minute, the photon was slowed down to a stop.
From the perspective of the photon, then no time has passed at all from the big bang until now...4.5 billion years is just a blink of an eye ...right?
?????
2007-12-27 13:07:20 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
It's true that in the frame of reference of the photon, its creation and its annihilation are simultaneous events. Of course, it doesn't really have consciousness. And, it never stops. It travels at the speed of light until it is absorbed.
Time dilation applies to an object traveling near the speed of light. For the photon, the two events are truly simultaneous. The elapsed time is zero, not the Planck time.
2007-12-27 13:18:06 · answer #1 · answered by Frank N 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
(Your question more simply put is how much time passes for a photon traveling at the speed of light. Also the time back to the Big Bang is about 14 billion years.)
Regardless, I would tend to agree with you as we are taught that maximum time dilation occurs at the speed of light. Therefore, the total amount of time that the photon would experience would be Planck time (ten to the negative forty-third seconds) and given that it existed until the end of the universe, all of that time would still only be Planck time.
This is my conclusion given that the statement, "Time dilates to its maximum value at the speed of light", is true.
If I am wrong, please would someone explain to me the error of my ways?
2007-12-27 21:21:58 · answer #2 · answered by Ultraviolet Oasis 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
What makes you so certain there was a Big Bang? That's just a theory.
Anyway, you are only correct if you can tie consciousness to entropy. But lots of things can exist and occur without entropy.
2007-12-27 21:10:50 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Photons are supposedly massless, so they do not experience time. So the 4.5billion years would have seemed like an instant, I suppose, yes.
2007-12-27 21:12:34 · answer #4 · answered by atreus1111 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
actually, if its going the speed of light.. then it would probably have noticed about 2.25 billion years of time. if i remember that part of relativity correctly...
2007-12-27 21:10:07 · answer #5 · answered by no body 6 · 0⤊ 5⤋
OMG I HAD THAT CLASS!!!!!!
2007-12-27 21:11:15 · answer #6 · answered by angry 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋