January 30, 2015 at 14:34Do headlights shine if the car moves at the speed of light?
- Transfer
1) Does the headlights illuminate other objects and reflect back into the eyes?
Not. As you know, the speed of light cannot be exceeded. This means that in one direction the light cannot shine at all, because it is not able to exceed the speed of the car, so it never leaves the headlights. However, we live in a multidimensional world and not all light shines in one direction.
Imagine a two-dimensional car without mass (that is, moving at the speed of light), which emitted two photons, one up and one down. Two beams separate from the car and remain behind it. They move at the same speed of light, but cannot move forwardas fast as one of the velocity vectors is up / down, so we overtake them. These photons then encounter some kind of obstacle in their path, such as a road sign or a tree, and are reflected back. The problem is that they can no longer catch up with you. Other people walking along the sidewalk are able to see the reflected light, but you have already left and you will never see it.
Here you are, everything can be explained on the mere fact that all light moves at the same speed, no matter where. This is hardly relevant to the theory of relativity.
However, there is a more hardcore version.
2) Can things moving at the speed of light have lights? Can they even have eyesight?
This is where the crazy truth of the theory of relativity really comes into play, so you don’t need to be ashamed if you don’t understand something, but the answer is again negative.
You may be familiar with the concept of relativistic time dilation. Suppose I and my friend get on different trains and go towards. Passing by, if we look through the window at the wall clocks in each other’s compartment, we will both notice that they go slower than usual. This is not because the clock slows down, but because the light between us enters into business: the faster we move, the slower the aging of relatively less moving objects. This is because time is not absolute for all objects in the Universe, it is different for each object and depends on its speed. Our time depends only on ourspeed in the universe. You can imagine this as movement in different directions on a space-time scale. There is a certain problem here, because our brain is not adapted to understand the geometry of space-time, but is inclined to represent time as a kind of absolute. Nevertheless, after reading a little literature on this topic, you can normally perceive it as a natural fact: those who move quickly relative to you are aging more slowly.
In fact, you can calculate how much slower it is. If you have passed one second, then your friend in a very fast train, one second will be equal to
your seconds, where v is his speed and c is the speed of light.
Suppose your friend is sitting in a hypothetical car and racing at the speed of light. So, we substitute its speed in our formula and see what the answer will be.
Ouch! Looks like he didn't have any time at all! Probably something is wrong with our calculations ?! It turns out that no. Time. Not. Exist. For. Objects. On the. Speed. Sveta.
He is simply not there.
This means that things at the speed of light cannot perceive "occurring" events in the same way as we perceive. Events cannot happenfor them. They can take action, but they cannot gain experience. Einstein himself once said: “Time exists so that everything does not happen at once” (“Time exists so that everything doesn't happen at once”). This is a coordinate designed to construct events in a meaningful sequence, so that we can understand what is happening. But for an object that moves at the speed of light, this principle does not work, because everything happens simultaneously. A traveler at the speed of light will never see, think, or feel something that we consider meaningful.
Here is such an unexpected conclusion.
Not. As you know, the speed of light cannot be exceeded. This means that in one direction the light cannot shine at all, because it is not able to exceed the speed of the car, so it never leaves the headlights. However, we live in a multidimensional world and not all light shines in one direction.
Imagine a two-dimensional car without mass (that is, moving at the speed of light), which emitted two photons, one up and one down. Two beams separate from the car and remain behind it. They move at the same speed of light, but cannot move forwardas fast as one of the velocity vectors is up / down, so we overtake them. These photons then encounter some kind of obstacle in their path, such as a road sign or a tree, and are reflected back. The problem is that they can no longer catch up with you. Other people walking along the sidewalk are able to see the reflected light, but you have already left and you will never see it.
Here you are, everything can be explained on the mere fact that all light moves at the same speed, no matter where. This is hardly relevant to the theory of relativity.
However, there is a more hardcore version.
2) Can things moving at the speed of light have lights? Can they even have eyesight?
This is where the crazy truth of the theory of relativity really comes into play, so you don’t need to be ashamed if you don’t understand something, but the answer is again negative.
You may be familiar with the concept of relativistic time dilation. Suppose I and my friend get on different trains and go towards. Passing by, if we look through the window at the wall clocks in each other’s compartment, we will both notice that they go slower than usual. This is not because the clock slows down, but because the light between us enters into business: the faster we move, the slower the aging of relatively less moving objects. This is because time is not absolute for all objects in the Universe, it is different for each object and depends on its speed. Our time depends only on ourspeed in the universe. You can imagine this as movement in different directions on a space-time scale. There is a certain problem here, because our brain is not adapted to understand the geometry of space-time, but is inclined to represent time as a kind of absolute. Nevertheless, after reading a little literature on this topic, you can normally perceive it as a natural fact: those who move quickly relative to you are aging more slowly.
In fact, you can calculate how much slower it is. If you have passed one second, then your friend in a very fast train, one second will be equal to
your seconds, where v is his speed and c is the speed of light.Suppose your friend is sitting in a hypothetical car and racing at the speed of light. So, we substitute its speed in our formula and see what the answer will be.
Ouch! Looks like he didn't have any time at all! Probably something is wrong with our calculations ?! It turns out that no. Time. Not. Exist. For. Objects. On the. Speed. Sveta.
He is simply not there.
This means that things at the speed of light cannot perceive "occurring" events in the same way as we perceive. Events cannot happenfor them. They can take action, but they cannot gain experience. Einstein himself once said: “Time exists so that everything does not happen at once” (“Time exists so that everything doesn't happen at once”). This is a coordinate designed to construct events in a meaningful sequence, so that we can understand what is happening. But for an object that moves at the speed of light, this principle does not work, because everything happens simultaneously. A traveler at the speed of light will never see, think, or feel something that we consider meaningful.
Here is such an unexpected conclusion.