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Can you explain

 
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If you're traveling at the speed of light and you turn your
headlights on, what happens?
 
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Nice question
 
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Originally posted by Chetan Parekh:
Nice question



Nice answer.
 
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I think the light from your head lights would be moving at the speed of light relative to you - or 2x speed of light to a stationary observer. You would still see your headlights just like normal.

I am justifying this with this example - but I may be missing a fundamental understanding of relativity here: If you are driving your car at 50mph and throw an apple out the window at 10mph - the apple is travelling at 10mph relative to you (it will still move away from you at 10mph) - but if the apple hits a stationary observer - they are hit by an apple travelling 60mph
[ October 06, 2005: Message edited by: Rick Beaver ]
 
Pradeep bhatt
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http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae169.cfm


Thanks to Gooooooooooooooogle.
 
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If you put instant coffee in a microwave, would you go back in time?
 
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If you travel at the speed of light and turn your headlights on you will get pulled over.

Heisenberg got pulled over for speeding. The cop said "Do you know how fast you were going?" and he said "No, but I know exactly where I am!"
 
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Originally posted by Stan James:
Heisenberg got pulled over for speeding. The cop said "Do you know how fast you were going?" and he said "No, but I know exactly where I am!"


LOL
 
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Speed of light and headlights...

How would you be able to tell?
 
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In my opinion, you will see your headlights shine at the speed of light. You will also think you are moving close to, but not exactly, at the speed of light. (not exactly possible since you have mass)

From a third party reference, they too, will see your headlights shine at the speed of light. However, they will see you moving at a rate much much slower than the speed of light.

Anyway, how does this resolve? Once you decide to stop, mere minutes may have passed in your timeframe, while it could be years from the third party's perspective.

As a side note, determining your true speed also has some issues. After all, how do you know that you are travelling near the speed of light?

Henry
[ October 05, 2005: Message edited by: Henry Wong ]
 
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Originally posted by Henry Wong:
After all, how do you know that you are travelling near the speed of light?



When you get a speeding ticket costing more then the average women's shoe shopping trip?
 
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