Does Time Dilation Make Me See More?

[omin]

I have heard that if I were traveling at the speed of light, things I'd see would appear longer along the horizontal axis. Does this mean I see more of what they are?

 

[Nenad]

when you travel close to thh speed of light, objects do become elongated relative to you by a factor of: L / (sqrt(1-v^2/c^2)). The objects you observe will seem to be elongated but you do not see more of them, you see the same amount, since space/time starts to elongate relative to you, the object actually does not, so you actually see the same amount.

 

[LURCH]

Although I have heard that you would see different parts of each object, which would not be visible at slower speeds. For example, a square or rectangular object would appear to you as though you were seeing the far side of it; "seeing around the corner" so to speak.

 

[Moose352]

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding something here, but I was pretty sure that the length contracts along the direction of motion. Also about the phenomenon LURCH mentioned, I'm not entirely sure, but I think that is due to the length contraction. Because the length contracts, the light rays from the far side can reach the observer.

 

[Doc Al]

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding something here, but I was pretty sure that the length contracts along the direction of motion.

Right. The measured length of a moving object is shorter along its direction of travel by a factor of \gamma = 1/\sqrt{1 - v^2/c^2} than its so-called proper length. Thus L = L_0/\gamma.

Also about the phenomenon LURCH mentioned, I'm not entirely sure, but I think that is due to the length contraction. Because the length contracts, the light rays from the far side can reach the observer.

Pretty close. This issue here is what you see, as opposed to what you measure. Rather than a shrunken object, what you would actually see (or photograph with a really high-speed camera) would be a rotated object. This apparent rotation is called the Penrose-Terrell rotation.