What happens when....
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Rich are you still here?
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Go on
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If a vehicle is travelling faster than the speed of light what happens when it turns it's headlights on?
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The speeds are added.
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So if you were travelling next to the vehicle at the same speed would you see the light on of off?
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They are on.
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Question clarification.
Is that 'faster than the speed of light', 'at the speed of light' or 'approaching the speed of light' ?
Also is the vehicle traveling in a vacuum or in another medium where the speed of light might be lowered from 'C' ?
Also are we to postulate 'what happens' from the point of view of the car-driver/passenger or for a bystander watching the car pass by ?? -
@unknownuser said:
If a vehicle is travelling faster than the speed of light what happens when it turns it's headlights on?
@gilles said:
The speeds are added.
Wrong. Those speeds cannot be added.
From a more "realistic" example: when those jets pass the speed of sound, they literally "pas" it (overtake in British English) and "before" them, they do not have sound.
Back to the original post: it was obvious that the solution would be what TIG answered - you cannot deny that my answer was also entertaining though.
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So the speed of light doubles?
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If you were observing the car from a distance, you might see that the lights themselves were glowing (depends on the precise speed of the car and whether you, yourself, were travelling...and in which direction), but they wouldn't shine forwards like they normally do. If you were in the car, they would appear normal and would project forwards, as normal.
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I'm sitting in a train, is speed is 250Km/h, I decide to go to the bar my speed relative to the train is 10Km/h ( I'm in a hurry I do need that beer!).
So what is my speed relative to the ground? -
Are you moving forward or backward through the train?
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Forward
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1,930km/h
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250 km/hr + 10 km/hr + beer + another beer + another beer + double scotch + beer chaser.
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Sorry but I go backward 20Km/h to the toilets
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Well, I've made some presumptions...
Firstly I'm in a train travelling in the direction of the earths rotation. So I used simple addition
1,670km/h + 250 + 10
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What if the train falls into the hole and you run upwards. Does the train then fall faster?
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