pudestcon Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 If a car travelled at the speed of light would the headlights work? Pud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryon Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Nope, but the tail lights would look great following along behind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgmwa Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Yes, but you wouldn't see anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne T Mathews Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Of course they'd work. Energy doesn't just disappear. But man alive, they'd be bright wouldn't they? And REALLY close when you did see them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadInTheClouds Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Yes. The light from the headlights would still travel away from the car at the speed of light (c). Also to someone on the side of the road watching the light from the headlights, it would still travel away from the car at c and not at 2c. This is because of Einstein's theory of special relativity, which states the speed of light remains constant for all observers and so time will dilate, length will contract and mass/momentum will dilate to assure that c remains constant. An easy way to see this is with the fact that speed=distance/time. So if speed (the speed of light) remains constant then distance and time have to change. Ahh physics.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne T Mathews Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Yes.An easy way to see this is with the fact that speed=distance/time. So if speed (the speed of light) remains constant then distance and time have to change. Ahh physics.... Say what???... if speed remains constant then distance and time have to change??? If that happened you'd have a variable constant... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 The speed of light doesn't change... i.e., it's the constant in this case... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadInTheClouds Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Say what???... if speed remains constant then distance and time have to change??? If that happened you'd have a variable constant... Light is the constant. And for the speed of light to remain constant distance and time will change. Time to drag out my old notes for an example... For example, someone is sitting on a train traveling at the speed of light and decides to look at their reflection in a mirror. They will of course see their reflection as normal. Seeing as the train is traveling at c, an observer outside the train would see that the light from the person doesn't 'catch up' to the mirror hence there would be no reflection. But according to relativity, length contracts and so the person outside the train will 'see' that the light has a shorter distance to travel and hence they will also see the person on the trains reflection as normal. Not a very good example but still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastmeg2 Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 I think I thought that we don't know what we don't know. Or did I? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deskpilot Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Of coarse they'd work. The question should be, would they produce a beam of light in front of the car, and I'm not buying into this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadInTheClouds Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 Of coarse they'd work. The question should be, would they produce a beam of light in front of the car, and I'm not buying into this one. Yes they will. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne T Mathews Posted December 5, 2011 Share Posted December 5, 2011 If a car travelled at the speed of light would the headlights work?Pud See what you've done Pud??? Is that a Kookaburra larfin' outside your window??? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pudestcon Posted December 5, 2011 Author Share Posted December 5, 2011 See what you've done Pud??? Is that a Kookaburra larfin' outside your window??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Methusala Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Oh, No..... it took us years to get over the plane landing on a moving belt. Now look at what YOU'VE started Pud. Have you heard the one about turns downwind???? Don 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 So, if you were driving along at the speed of a bullet, and you shot the bullet ahead... what will happen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadInTheClouds Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 So, if you were driving along at the speed of a bullet, and you shot the bullet ahead... what will happen? The bullet will have it's speed plus the speed of the car (So bloody fast) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne T Mathews Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 So' date=' if you were driving along at the speed of a bullet, and you shot the bullet ahead... what will happen? [img']https://www.recreationalflying.com/xf2/uploads/emoticons/075_amazon.gif.0882093f126abdba732f442cccc04585.gif[/img] Newton wrote some laws about this'n a while back... But if you shot the bullet astern??? Come on Pud,,, you started this... Your turn... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadInTheClouds Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 If you shot it astern it would drop more or less straight down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guernsey Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Now if you were driving your latest model Ford car at twice the speed of light, you would finish up very quickly with a Model T Ford, and the sound would catch you up in two light years along with the bullets that Al Capone shot from the Model T. Alan Capone (a distant relative) according to the laws of relativity. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne T Mathews Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Does more or less = almost? Image ourselves standing off to the side when the car went speeding by and the bullet was fired... What would we see the bullet do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guernsey Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 If you shot it astern it would drop more or less straight down. It's just as well the Lancaster Bomber couldn't fly at that speed because the tail gunner would never hit the Messerschmit. That statement will draw a few replies, cos I can think of a few already. I might have to put up with it and just bite the Bullet. Gunner Alan. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pudestcon Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 So, if you were driving along at the speed of a bullet, and you shot the bullet ahead... what will happen? Newton wrote some laws about this'n a while back... But if you shot the bullet astern??? Come on Pud,,, you started this... Your turn... I don't bloody know!! I just asked the question:augie: But I reckon the bullet won't just dribble out the barrel and the road ahead would be illuminated. Another one for ya.... Is the car pushing or pulling the trailer? Pud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne T Mathews Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Another one for ya.... Is the car pushing or pulling the trailer? Pud Hint: What's the towball doing to the hitch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadInTheClouds Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Does more or less = almost? Image ourselves standing off to the side when the car went speeding by and the bullet was fired... What would we see the bullet do? More or less=Accounting for air resistance. I saw them do a myth on mythbusters regarding the firing something backwards with the same speed as a car moving forwards. Surprisingly it did drop pretty much straight down (Air resistance) at a range of velocities. While the projectile is in the barrel of the moving car, it may as well be not moving at all. The 'shot' will accelerate it down the barrel and until it leaves it is as if the cannon was sitting still on the ground. But while it is accelerating down the barrel, lets say to 100km/h, the car is traveling the opposite direction at 100km/h. So relative to the car the projectile will accelerate to 100km/h and leave the cannon, but relative to anyone watching it the projectile was already traveling at 100km/h (To the left for arguments sake) and the firing of the cannon has essentially slowed it down like a brake so that when it leaves the cannon it has no velocity, and hence drops pretty much straight down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastmeg2 Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Oh, No..... it took us years to get over the plane landing on a moving belt. Now look at what YOU'VE started Pud. Have you heard the one about turns downwind???? Don No Don, It was the plane taking off from the moving belt thread. Just like the falling pot plant in the Hitch-Hikers-Guide, I find myself thinking, "Oh no, not again!" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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