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Voltaire6022
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If you were infinitely close to the speed of light, and you attempted to take a picture of yourself, would it work? Would there be any way to make it work using relative velocities?
Pengwuino said:The interesting question, on the other hand, would be if someone on a passing planet tried to take a picture of someone on the spaceship, then you'd see relativistic effects!
nitsuj said:That's not an interesting question, especialy not the interesting question.
Yea I bet that photo would turn out real well. :uhh:
nitsuj said:At speeds "infinitely" close to c, the answer they "wouldn't notice anything different and could take pictures easily" is moot.
elfmotat said:What? You don't think that a photo showing relativistic effects would be interesting?
That doesn't really make any sense. That IS the answer - how can it be "moot?"
nitsuj said:it is not possible so that makes it moot.
nitsuj said:Never said I don't think that a photo showing relativistic effects would be interesting.
I said that it is not an interesting question, let alone, the interesting question.
it is not possible so that makes it moot.
elfmotat said:In principle it is possible, so the question is not moot.
pervect said:I think there may be a semantic issue here. If you had a photo that showed effects depending on "velocity through space" or "absolute velocity", they wouldn't be relativistic effects. They'd be evidence that relativity was wrong.
Note that we (or at least I) don't want to start a debate on "is relativity right or wrong" here. The experimental evidence is out there for those who want to study it (such as the failure of previous attempts to measure the absolute velocity of the Earth through space through the M.M. experiment, for starters).
The forum is mostly dedicated to helping people who want to understand relativity to understand it. And part of understanding relativity is understanding that things don't look any different depending on your velocity, this is one of the fundamental principles.
elfmotat said:I think you may have misunderstood what nitsuj was saying. He wasn't arguing that photographs taken in an inertial reference frame near traveling near c relative to another observer wouldn't show relativistic effects within that frame - he was arguing that it's impossible to have a spaceship traveling near c to begin with, so the question is moot. If you read my original post in this thread you'll see that I'm well aware of the principle of relativity.
Pengwuino said:Why is it not possible?
nitsuj said:I don't know. Is it?
Is it possible for there to be a ship with two people on board with a camera all traveling "infinitely close to the speed of light" and take a photo?
And at the same time on a planet passed by the ship a camera takes a photo of the ship while it passed by at "infinitely close to the speed of light"?
And that photo to show relativistic effects?
Sounds rather abstract and deprived of practical significance.
nitsuj said:I don't know. Is it?
Is it possible for there to be a ship with two people on board with a camera all traveling "infinitely close to the speed of light" and take a photo?
And at the same time on a planet passed by the ship a camera takes a photo of the ship while it passed by at "infinitely close to the speed of light"?
And that photo to show relativistic effects?
Sounds rather abstract and deprived of practical significance.
elfmotat said:I don't really understand what your point is.
nitsuj said:So the OP belives a photo can be taken at near c speeds on a spaceship.
DaveC426913 said:Justin, this is a question of principle. There is absolutely nothing in principle stopping the scenario from occurring.
Consider another question:
"Is it possible to take a picture on Pluto?"
Justin: "It is moot since we cannot get to Pluto."
Everyone else: "Of course it is possible to take a picture on Pluto."
tkav1980 said:This may be a stupid question but since this thread is about taking pictures while traveling near c, relative to let's say the earth. What would a picture taken looking out the side window look like. Assuming the lense of the camera was perfectly perpendicular to the direction of travel, and what would the picture look like out of the front and rear windows?
I'm going to take an uneducated guess and say everything out of the front window would be more blue, and the rear window more red. But would the length contraction be noticable? and would the length elongate out of the back window?
elfmotat said:
elfmotat said:
Integral said:Consider this. Objects very distant from the Earth are observed to have velocities near the speed of light with respect to earth. So with respect to these distant objects the Earth is traveling at a relativistic velocity.
Now, can you take a picture?
Correct.tkav1980 said:Well Since we have some pictures of verry distant galaxys I'll say yes.
This is unrelated. Grav lensing simply distorts the image:tkav1980 said:This may be the wrong part of the forum for this question, but I read on Discovery channel's website that some of the most distant ones are photographed using gravitational lensing. After watching that animation linked a few posts above, how does that effect change the picture?
DaveC426913 said:Correct.
But the other point being: since from their point of view it is us speeding through the universe at near c, and we don't have trouble taking picture of each other here on Earth... therefore moving at near c does not affect the ability to take pictures.
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Integral said:Consider this. Objects very distant from the Earth are observed to have velocities near the speed of light with respect to earth. So with respect to these distant objects the Earth is traveling at a relativistic velocity.
Now, can you take a picture?
Yes.tkav1980 said:Is this because the speed of light is constant no matter what inertal refrence frame its observed from?
No. Other way around. Our velocity when we compare it to c is always c. Their velocity when they compare it to c is always c.tkav1980 said:Meaning, We see them moving near c, they see us moving near c, but both of us agree on the value of c regardless of our velocity compared to c.
nitsuj said:interesting, what are these objects? and at what distance are they from us?
DaveC426913 said:Yes.
No. Other way around. Our velocity when we compare it to c is always c. Their velocity when they compare it to c is always c.
But yes, we both agrgee that c wrt us is c.