filbertway Posted 26 January 2006 Posted 26 January 2006 If your driving in a car at the speed of light, then turn on your head lights, what would happen?
Steven Posted 26 January 2006 Posted 26 January 2006 If your driving in a car at the speed of light, then turn on your head lights, what would happen? Depends on where you are viewing the headlights from.
Babylon Posted 26 January 2006 Posted 26 January 2006 If your driving in a car at the speed of light, then turn on your head lights, what would happen? These were in the paper the other day!! Another couple that were in it... "Whos cruel idea was it to put an 's' in lisp?" "If superman can stop bullets with his chest, why does he duck when they throw the gun at his head"
Nationwider Posted 26 January 2006 Posted 26 January 2006 I got them forwarded to me on email - credited to Peter Kay. The answer to the original question is that you'd crash.
filbertway Posted 26 January 2006 Author Posted 26 January 2006 I got them forwarded to me on email - credited to Peter Kay. The answer to the original question is that you'd crash. Why? WHat if there was a road that went on forever?
Nationwider Posted 26 January 2006 Posted 26 January 2006 Why? WHat if there was a road that went on forever? On the basis that if you were driving your Honda Accord at 186,282.397 miles per second and momentarily reached to turn the headlights on, you'd probably end up swerving onto the hard-shoulder at least. To be fair, if you're on the the road that goes on forever (is that the A1(M)?), you might be ok.
Lemon Harpic Posted 26 January 2006 Posted 26 January 2006 If your driving in a car at the speed of light, then turn on your head lights, what would happen? Are there any boffins out there who know the answer? My guess would be that the light would bounce about from side to side inside the concave reflecting bit of the headlights, so from your position inside the car it would seem like the headlights were turned off. Of course, you'd have more problems to worry about. The friction from travelling at light speed would raise the temperature inside the car to about a zillion degrees. Also, the speed of light is not constant. Some scientists found that when you pass light through sodium cooled to nearly absolute zero it travels at 38 mph!
filbertway Posted 26 January 2006 Author Posted 26 January 2006 Are there any boffins out there who know the answer? My guess would be that the light would bounce about from side to side inside the concave reflecting bit of the headlights, so from your position inside the car it would seem like the headlights were turned off. Of course, you'd have more problems to worry about. The friction from travelling at light speed would raise the temperature inside the car to about a zillion degrees. Also, the speed of light is not constant. Some scientists found that when you pass light through sodium cooled to nearly absolute zero it travels at 38 mph! SO its already possible to travel faster than light
Steven Posted 26 January 2006 Posted 26 January 2006 Are there any boffins out there who know the answer? My guess would be that the light would bounce about from side to side inside the concave reflecting bit of the headlights, so from your position inside the car it would seem like the headlights were turned off. Of course, you'd have more problems to worry about. The friction from travelling at light speed would raise the temperature inside the car to about a zillion degrees. Also, the speed of light is not constant. Some scientists found that when you pass light through sodium cooled to nearly absolute zero it travels at 38 mph! The speed of light is not constant
Lemon Harpic Posted 27 January 2006 Posted 27 January 2006 The speed of light is not constant Thanks Steven. If I've understood all that, which I probably haven't, then the element of the headlight would obviously be charged when the driver turns the headlight on. Because the charged headlight is travelling at c, the speed of light in a vacuum, but the light itself is travelling at less than c, then Cherenkov radiation would be produced. So, the answer to the original question would be that the headlights turn brilliant blue!?! But you'd have to ignore the fact that only massless particles can travel at the speed of light. Bah!
Rincewind Posted 27 January 2006 Posted 27 January 2006 Would you see the light from the head lights because you'd be driving along side it or overtaking it. Well that's my guess.
Jordan Posted 27 January 2006 Posted 27 January 2006 The speed of light is not constant You're right, it is not... but from my understanding, one cannot approach the speed of light in our "real-life" enviroment because one's mass would have to exceed an infinte ratio of mass/volume in order to crack that "barrier." I know that I'm a little drunk now, but there's no way I was that heavily stoned through my college physics classes that I'd make this sh$t up.
john_lcfc Posted 27 January 2006 Posted 27 January 2006 to the original question it doesnt work..i cant be arsed to talk about it but a train going 40 miles an hour with its lights on the lights dont go speed of light + 40.. it dont work like that <_<
Phube Posted 27 January 2006 Posted 27 January 2006 I think the point of the question is if you're going at the speed of light, and you turn your lights on, the light escaping the bulb if going as fast as you, therefore theoretically nothing would happen!! But as achieving the speed of light is impossible, it wont be keeping NASA awake worrying about it.
wonderboy Posted 30 January 2006 Posted 30 January 2006 basically nothing can travel faster than the speed of light so in effect you would see the headlamps turn on before you actually turned them on
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