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If you are traveling at the speed of light and attempted to turn on your headlights, will they still come on?

JoyfulSilence · 46-50, M
Yes, because from the point of view of you and the lamp, it is no different than if you were stationary. That is, if you were stationary relative to a frame or moving close to the speed of light relative to a frame (you cannot move at the speed of light), you and the lamp would still behave the same, from your point of view.

From another object, what is sees will vary. If you are moving away from another object, that object will see your time as slowing down. The electrons in the lamp will slow, the events will slow, but the photons will still emerge at the speed of light, no matter what. Time will never stop, though, so the lamp eventually comes on.

Here I am assuming no gravity. Near black holes the time can appear to freeze so the light may never come on.
reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M
no, time slows down as you go towards the speed of light, I think at the speed of light time within the contained area going at that speed would stop which means everything would stand still and you could not move. also although it has been theorised that certain particles could exist at a speed faster than the speed of light they would have to have always been at that speed because nothing can accelerate and go beyond the speed of light and a light shining from a bulb going at the speed of light would go faster than the speed of light which in not possible. just my guess, its been 20 years since I studied relativity.
JoyfulSilence · 46-50, M
@reflectingmonkey Time would only slow down relative to a frame that was moving away from the lamp at near the speed of light. But relative to the lamp, things would be normal. That is, physics is the same from all inertial frames. One can look at other objects moving with respect to this frame, and see time slowing down. But if those objects look at you, they will see your time slowing down.

Here I am excluding gravity. Supposedly if I was orbiting a black hole and I saw an object pass the event horizon its time would slow and then it (or at least its image and signals) would appear to freeze on the surface of the event horizon. But from the point of view of the falling object, I do not think it would notice anything, except it could no longer send signals anymore outside the horizon. I am not sure if it would see my time as slowing. I am unsure because I don't know how fast it will be going relative to me.
reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M
@JoyfulSilence as predicted by Einstein, it has already been demonstrated that if you take 2 identical very precise clocks and put one in a very fast plane and the other on the ground, after the experiment the two clocks will no longer show the same time, the one having been in the plane will be behind, proving that the time within the plane was actually going slower than time on the ground and theory predicts that this effect would get worst as you get closer to the speed of light. I think that it stipulates that reaching the speed of light is impossible but if we could time would be stopped within the plane, meaning a clock within this plane for 10 minutes would be afterwards behind by 10 minutes compared to other clocks, meaning it would have actually stopped during its traveling at the speed of light, that includes then our metabolism, so no movement.
JoyfulSilence · 46-50, M
@reflectingmonkey I was not thinking of a situation like in the "twin paradox" where something travels away and then comes back. The one that went away and came back ages less. I was just thinking of one object moving relative to another at a constant velocity. Both would see the other as aging less, and both would be right! But if one is at a constant velocity, and the other moves away from the first at a constant velocity and then moves back at a constant velocity, then I agree the second will be younger (I just watched a video on it).

I am no expert, and it still confuses me.
abe182 · 46-50, M
I'm gonna say yes. At Mach one or faster you're still able to speak and create sound.
Eddiesolds · 61-69, M
Sure they will.what are you flying in? It must have power!lol
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