- #1
Dauden
- 45
- 0
A question has been in my head for some time and I have yet to find an answer when I researched it.
I know that nothing can travel faster than light, but WHY?
All observers, no matter what speed they are traveling to or from the source of light, see the light as coming at them at 670 million miles per hour. My mind is boggled by this. I made a scenario in my head that made me want to find this answer out.
It might seem difficult to picture, it might not, I don't know but here it is.
Say a light source is at point A. A stationary person #1 is at point B which is 670 million miles away (the light will take an hour to reach B from A). Say person #2 is running past point B going 100 million mile per hour (theoretically) away from the light source. Person #3 is running the exact same speed as the #2 but running toward the light source. If they all reach point B the exact time the beam of light hits point B from A, according to the principle of GR, they all see the light going 670 million miles per hour. If this is true, wouldn't the light reach point B at different times for each?
Person #2 would see the light hit point B before the others because, to his perspective, the light is traveling 670 million miles per hour. If Person #1 saw the light going at the same rate at which person #2 saw, because person #1 is stationary, he would see it as going 770 million miles per hour. But this is not possible since light travels 670 million miles per hour.
So, the light would reach point B faster for person #2 than #1 and #3.
I don't know if this is understandable. It is a complex situation that I had to rethink to get a grasp of and I still don't know if I understand the scenario fully.
I know that nothing can travel faster than light, but WHY?
All observers, no matter what speed they are traveling to or from the source of light, see the light as coming at them at 670 million miles per hour. My mind is boggled by this. I made a scenario in my head that made me want to find this answer out.
It might seem difficult to picture, it might not, I don't know but here it is.
Say a light source is at point A. A stationary person #1 is at point B which is 670 million miles away (the light will take an hour to reach B from A). Say person #2 is running past point B going 100 million mile per hour (theoretically) away from the light source. Person #3 is running the exact same speed as the #2 but running toward the light source. If they all reach point B the exact time the beam of light hits point B from A, according to the principle of GR, they all see the light going 670 million miles per hour. If this is true, wouldn't the light reach point B at different times for each?
Person #2 would see the light hit point B before the others because, to his perspective, the light is traveling 670 million miles per hour. If Person #1 saw the light going at the same rate at which person #2 saw, because person #1 is stationary, he would see it as going 770 million miles per hour. But this is not possible since light travels 670 million miles per hour.
So, the light would reach point B faster for person #2 than #1 and #3.
I don't know if this is understandable. It is a complex situation that I had to rethink to get a grasp of and I still don't know if I understand the scenario fully.