Light move away from the emitter at 1.00 c ?

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if an object moving at .99 c emits a light, does that light move away from the emitter at 1.00 c ?
 
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Yes, because the light does not know that the source is in motion.
 


if the emitter suddenly stops, does the light know it? If the light doesn`t know it, the light will be moving at c plus the previous speed of the emitter.
 


keepitmoving said:
if the emitter suddenly stops, does the light know it? If the light doesn`t know it, the light will be moving at c plus the previous speed of the emitter.
No it won't. A stationary observer would still measure the speed of light as c. The invariance of the speed of light is a fundamental concept in special relativity.
 


The light will not ever be moving at c plus the speed of the emitter. Light rays travel at c. Every light ray in vacuum will be measured to be traveling at c by every inertial observer. The emitter measures the light ray to recede from him at c. The receiver measures the light ray to approach him at c. Any and all passers-by to this experiment measure the speed of the light ray as c. It makes no difference whatsoever what the various observers' velocities are relative to each other; they all, each and every one of them, measure the speed of that light ray as c. Not c + the velocity of the emitter, not c + the velocity of the receiver, not c + anything. C.

That is what it means for the speed of light to be constant.
 


keepitmoving said:
the light will be moving at c plus the previous speed of the emitter.
In a way it will, but with a different definition of "plus". In SR you have to add up velocities like this:

u\oplus v=\frac{u+v}{1+\frac{uv}{c^2}}

If u=0.99c and v=c, the result is

u\oplus v=\frac{0.99c+c}{1+\frac{0.99c^2}{c^2}}=\frac{1.99c}{1.99}=c

What if u isn't 0.99c? Let's try it again, with u arbitrary and v=c:

u\oplus v=\frac{u+c}{1+\frac{uc}{c^2}}=\frac{c\left(\frac u c+1\right)}{1+\frac{u}{c}}=c
 


Fredrik, what equation is that? Does it have a name I can google? :)
 


That's the relativistic addition of velocity formula.
 
  • #10


Thank you. That's handy.
 
  • #11


Does the u \oplus v means the velocity of the emitter relative to the observer plus the velocity of the photon relative to the emitter? If I could try your patience for one more stupid question, what's a plus sign with a circle around it? Just a sign for adding vectors or what?

Thanks again.
 
  • #12


pesto said:
Does the u \oplus v means the velocity of the emitter relative to the observer plus the velocity of the photon relative to the emitter? If I could try your patience for one more stupid question, what's a plus sign with a circle around it? Just a sign for adding vectors or what?

Thanks again.

v is the velocity relative the observer for objectA and u is the velocity of the objectB relative objectA, always. And <br /> u \oplus v<br /> means the velocity of object B as measured by the observer. <br /> \oplus <br /> means "composition law for velocities under boosts"

In the wiki article this <br /> u \oplus v<br /> is just called "s".
 
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  • #13


malawi_glenn said:
v is the velocity relative the observer for objectA and u is the velocity relative the observer for objectB, always. And <br /> u \oplus v<br /> means the relative velocity of A and B as measured by the observer. <br /> \oplus <br /> means "composition law for velocities under boosts"

In the wiki article this <br /> u \oplus v<br /> is just called "s".

Woah! Back to the old drawing board. Thank you for the explanation. I though u \oplus v or "s" was the velocity of objectB relative to the observer!
 
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  • #14


pesto said:
Woah! Back to the old drawing board. Thank you for the explanation. I though u \oplus v[/text] or &quot;s&quot; was the velocity of objectB relative to the observer!
<br /> <br /> here is really good explanation what is included <a href="http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/velocity.html" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/velocity.html</a><br /> <br /> forget about my last post, I was not focused on this thread, Sorry for that.<br /> <br /> I have changed it now so it should be correct now, I had many irons in the oven :-) (and maybe I was confused by the non-standard notation \oplus ) ;-)<br /> <br /> The point of the calculation given by Fredrik is that light always move with speed c for all observers.
 
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  • #15


malawi_glenn said:
v is the velocity relative the observer for objectA and u is the velocity relative the observer for objectB, always. And <br /> u \oplus v<br /> means the relative velocity of A and B as measured by the observer. <br /> \oplus <br /> means "composition law for velocities under boosts"

In the wiki article this <br /> u \oplus v<br /> is just called "s".
Sorry, that's confused.

If A, B and C are 3 objects all moving along the same straight line
  • u is the velocity of B measured by A
  • v is the velocity of C measured by B
  • u \oplus v is the velocity of C measured by A
The symbol \oplus is not standard notation. Some may use it but others don't. It's just a way of denoting a different way of "adding" velocities. I'd prefer to call it "composition" rather than "addition".
 
  • #16


DrGreg said:
Sorry, that's confused.

If A, B and C are 3 objects all moving along the same straight line
  • u is the velocity of B measured by A
  • v is the velocity of C measured by B
  • u \oplus v is the velocity of C measured by A
The symbol \oplus is not standard notation. Some may use it but others don't. It's just a way of denoting a different way of "adding" velocities. I'd prefer to call it "composition" rather than "addition".

yup I know, it was an error, I fixed it.

regarding "composition" vs. "addition" I actually mentioned that <br /> \oplus<br /> stands for "composition" right? why adding that?

Cheers
 
  • #17


malawi_glenn said:
yup I know, it was an error, I fixed it.

regarding "composition" vs. "addition" I actually mentioned that <br /> \oplus<br /> stands for "composition" right? why adding that?

Cheers
Sorry, my intentions weren't clear. That comment was really aimed at Pesto in answer to post #11.

In case anyone reading this thread is confused, I was correcting an error in post #12, but then malawi_glenn corrected his own error at the same time, making my comment out of date by the time I posted it. But it's too late to undo that now without causing even further confusion... :frown:
 
  • #18


DrGreg said:
Sorry, my intentions weren't clear. That comment was really aimed at Pesto in answer to post #11.

In case anyone reading this thread is confused, I was correcting an error in post #12, but then malawi_glenn corrected his own error at the same time, making my comment out of date by the time I posted it. But it's too late to undo that now without causing even further confusion... :frown:

it's ok, it do happens sometimes that a person is editing his posts meanwhile someone is pointing out the misstake they did - no big deal :biggrin:
 
  • #19


Thanks again. Fixed my post too :).
 

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