If you are driving at the speed of light and you turn your headlights on, what happens?
03-19-2002, 08:36 AM
#5
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it's NOTHING like the speed of sound...
(c) is a constant and relativity states that (c) is ALWAYS the same no matter what speed the observer is travelling at.
The speed of sound is a variable wave which is nothing close to a cosmic constant and comparisons between the sound "barrier" and light travel are completely erronious.
As you approach the speed of light with your headlights on, you would still measure the light beam racing away from your car at 186,000 miles per second (c). A "stationary" observer watching this happen, though, would not then measure the beam's speed at almost twice c. Relativity says that all observers always get the same measurement for c.
While that may not sound logical or plausible, it happens because what we normally think of as fixed concepts--length and time--are both variable at high speeds. If you observed a car travelling past you at close to c, its length in the direction of travel would appear shortened and the passage of time on board would appear slowed down.
The speed of sound is a variable wave which is nothing close to a cosmic constant and comparisons between the sound "barrier" and light travel are completely erronious.
As you approach the speed of light with your headlights on, you would still measure the light beam racing away from your car at 186,000 miles per second (c). A "stationary" observer watching this happen, though, would not then measure the beam's speed at almost twice c. Relativity says that all observers always get the same measurement for c.
While that may not sound logical or plausible, it happens because what we normally think of as fixed concepts--length and time--are both variable at high speeds. If you observed a car travelling past you at close to c, its length in the direction of travel would appear shortened and the passage of time on board would appear slowed down.
03-19-2002, 08:39 AM
#7
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hehehe that's ONE problem...
but there are so many others.
This is an old topic and well discussed here:<ul><li><a href="http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae169.cfm">http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae169.cfm</a</li></ul>
This is an old topic and well discussed here:<ul><li><a href="http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae169.cfm">http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae169.cfm</a</li></ul>
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03-19-2002, 08:46 AM
#8
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Oh.. yeah.. I know... I took tons of physics in college ;-)
Quantum Physics gets all sorts of interesting... :-)
I could go on for days about this, but that's for another forum
I was just stating one point
-T
I could go on for days about this, but that's for another forum
I was just stating one point
-T
