Traveling at Lightspeed - Time Stops

[tryceo]

If an object were to travel at the speed of light from Point A to Point B, then wouldn't the speed of light for the person on the object be v = d/0? Because when you travel at the speed of light in space, your time stops. So when the object reaches point B, even if it is 1 billion lightyears away, it would seem instantaneous to the person on board. Then that would mean a part of Quantum Mechanics, where the electrons move from place to place no 0 amount of time, would also apply to this object as well.

 

[f95toli]

No object with mass can travel at the speed of light, so the question is meaningless.

 

[tryceo]

Then what if you looked at the photon's point of view?

 

[jtbell]

I had to stifle an "AAARRRGGGHHH!" when I saw "photon's point of view" because we have had many discussions here about it. You couldn't be expected to know that, of course, because you're new here, so I'll just link you to a couple of searches for those threads.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=photon+point+of+view+site:physicsforums.com

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=photon+reference+frame+site:physicsforums.com

I'm in the camp that says that it's pretty much meaningless to talk about a "photon's point of view," by the way, but I don't particularly feel like arguing about it.

 

[Nabeshin]

I had to stifle an "AAARRRGGGHHH!" when I saw "photon's point of view" because we have had many discussions here about it. You couldn't be expected to know that, of course, because you're new here, so I'll just link you to a couple of searches for those threads.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=photon+point+of+view+site:physicsforums.com

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=photon+reference+frame+site:physicsforums.com

I'm in the camp that says that it's pretty much meaningless to talk about a "photon's point of view," by the way, but I don't particularly feel like arguing about it.

Echo 100% of this, including the stifled "ARRGGGHHH".

 

[HallsofIvy]

I see absolutely no reason to stifle the ARRGGGHHH! (In fact, I might add a few "R"s, "G"s, and "H"s). Simply put there is no such thing as "the photon's point of view". In a sense, tryceo, you are right- "time stops" at light speed so nothing happens for the photon and it can observe nothing- the photon has NO point of view and there is no such thing as a "frame of reference" at the speed of light. To even ask "what would happen IF you could move at the speed of light?" is to deny relativity. Essentially you are asking, "If relativity were NOT correct, what result would relativity give?" and that is nonsense.