Is the Perspective of a Photon in Relativity Truly Timeless?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SovereignX
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Photons Relativity
SovereignX
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hi! First sorry my little bad english :-)
My question is... A photon leaves the surface of the sun. It needs approx 8 mins to reach the Earth. Or we can say - in the notion of relativity - that the Earth needs 8 mins to reach the photon. BUT! Photons moving at c. And if we solve the Lorentz equation we get that in the viewpoint of photons there is no distance between two points in space. So the pov of photon the Earth just... get there with no time. But in our point of view... Besically we can say the photon IS moving toward us and we DONT move toward the photon. So...where is the relativity of moving? :-)
 
Physics news on Phys.org
There is no inertial reference frame in which the photon is at rest. As such, the photon has no rest frame.
 
The light signal has no "point of view"; the speed of light is equal to ##c## in all inertial frames and therefore there is no inertial frame in which a light signal is at rest. The derivation of the Lorentz transforms starts with the assumption that both frames are inertial and therefore the transforms cannot be applied in this situation; if you try it, you'll just end up with garbage-in-garbage-out bogus results.

There is a FAQ on this topic: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/rest-frame-of-a-photon.511170/

(You may also notice that I'm saying "light signal" instead of "photon". A photon isn't what you think it is; this doesn't matter here, but in some other thought experiments it will).
 
Last edited:
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