Car as fast as the speed of light

mildpiranha
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
What would happen if you drove a car as fast as the speed of light and then switched on the headlights
 
Physics news on Phys.org
"[URL am driving my car at the speed of light and I turn on my headlights. What do I see?
[/URL]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Because you cannot have a car moving at the speed of light, you are asking a question that basically says "Assuming relativity does not hold, what would relativity say happens"- it just doesn't make sense.

You can ask, "suppose I am in a car traveling (relative to some frame of reference) 99.9% the speed of light, what would I see?" You would see, of course, light traveling away from you at the speed of light and, if it reflected from some object, coming back to you at the speed of light, exactly as you would moving at any speed below that of light.
 
Thread 'Can this experiment break Lorentz symmetry?'
1. The Big Idea: According to Einstein’s relativity, all motion is relative. You can’t tell if you’re moving at a constant velocity without looking outside. But what if there is a universal “rest frame” (like the old idea of the “ether”)? This experiment tries to find out by looking for tiny, directional differences in how objects move inside a sealed box. 2. How It Works: The Two-Stage Process Imagine a perfectly isolated spacecraft (our lab) moving through space at some unknown speed V...
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. The Relativator was sold by (as printed) Atomic Laboratories, Inc. 3086 Claremont Ave, Berkeley 5, California , which seems to be a division of Cenco Instruments (Central Scientific Company)... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/relativator-circular-slide-rule-simulated-with-desmos/ by @robphy
Does the speed of light change in a gravitational field depending on whether the direction of travel is parallel to the field, or perpendicular to the field? And is it the same in both directions at each orientation? This question could be answered experimentally to some degree of accuracy. Experiment design: Place two identical clocks A and B on the circumference of a wheel at opposite ends of the diameter of length L. The wheel is positioned upright, i.e., perpendicular to the ground...
Back
Top