Speed of light
Discussion
RobDickinson said:
As you aproach the speed of light you would see less and less apart from a 'tunnel' of light ahead and behind.
Ahead would be blue shifted, behind would be red shifted.
I'm assuming if you reached the speed of light you would just see a bright dot ahead as you hit the oncoming light, and not much else.
Recently some physicist calculated a photon only lasts 3 days - this is what the photon would experience, but because they travel at the speed of light this effectively slows down time for them (well us) and they will outlast the universe
What I find fascinating is that when you look at the sun, those photons that hit your retina took 8 minutes to get here, but were originally generated more than 100,000 years ago.Ahead would be blue shifted, behind would be red shifted.
I'm assuming if you reached the speed of light you would just see a bright dot ahead as you hit the oncoming light, and not much else.
Recently some physicist calculated a photon only lasts 3 days - this is what the photon would experience, but because they travel at the speed of light this effectively slows down time for them (well us) and they will outlast the universe
steveatesh said:
Well having read all this I've decided the answer is simply to put the kettle on and have a nice cup of tea....... 
The universe (multiverse?) gets really freaky when you get towards limits (of speed, mass, size). It gets even weirder the harder you look at it , and you start to doubt any of it is real lol
Boring_Chris said:
I thought that if you were traveling at the speed of light, then you experience no time?
So the trip would be too short to really jot down your observations.
But how 'far' does light travel? If I was in space and pointed my torch into space, would it reflect off Pluto? Or further?
A photon would travel forever until it hits something. At Pluto your torch beam would be hundreds of thousands of miles wide so the chance of a photon hitting the surface and bouncing back to your eye is low. Something as large as the sun can barely illuminate Pluto well enough to be seen from Earth.So the trip would be too short to really jot down your observations.
But how 'far' does light travel? If I was in space and pointed my torch into space, would it reflect off Pluto? Or further?
scorp said:
Boring_Chris said:
I thought that if you were traveling at the speed of light, then you experience no time?
So the trip would be too short to really jot down your observations.
But how 'far' does light travel? If I was in space and pointed my torch into space, would it reflect off Pluto? Or further?
A photon would travel forever until it hits something. At Pluto your torch beam would be hundreds of thousands of miles wide so the chance of a photon hitting the surface and bouncing back to your eye is low. Something as large as the sun can barely illuminate Pluto well enough to be seen from Earth.So the trip would be too short to really jot down your observations.
But how 'far' does light travel? If I was in space and pointed my torch into space, would it reflect off Pluto? Or further?
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