The answer, is not a simple one, nor a definitive one.
For starters, travelling at the speed of light for an object with mass is physically impossible in so far as anybody has shown yet, it would require infinite energy.
Now if we ignore that, we also know that the speed of light is constant in all frames of reference.More so, as you get towards such speeds, time and space go, well, all wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey (apologies to Doctor Who).
So, in all, if you were somehow travelling at the speed of light in your car and turned your headlights on, inside your frame of reference things would be mostly normal, light would extend out from your headlights at the speed of light.And somebody looking at your light would see it as the speed of light.The light itself would be Doppler shifted depending on observation point, in the same way as the sound of a train changes depending on if it is coming towards or away from you.
In short, it's a seemingly simple question, with a very hard to understand, and probably impossible to show answer, pretty much, it comes down to the Theory of Special Relativity.
elect70,
Sep 25, 12:56am
You find you have driven up your own fundamental oriface .
rsr72,
Sep 25, 1:49am
Well, that buggers up the Doppler theory.
richard198,
Sep 25, 2:22am
Which has just had the rug pulled out from under it in Switzerland!
spead,
Sep 25, 2:57am
you become invisible and time stops according to Einsteins theory.
rsr72,
Sep 25, 3:12am
That would be a great help through the roadblock on the way home from the pub.
richard198,
Sep 25, 3:18am
Although Einsteins Theory of Relativity has been shot to bits, my comment about the traffic lights would still occur (at approx. many hundreds of kilometres/hour.well belowc) due to Doppler effect changing the apparent (observed) wavelength (colour) of the lights!
jam19,
Sep 25, 4:43am
hilarious, what would happen if the driver tooted the horn !
rsr72,
Sep 25, 4:48am
- at what!
jam19,
Sep 25, 5:18am
i,m surmising that the driver for whatever reason, blasted the horn, but the sound waves would be passed himat the instant that he "sounded'" the horn, therefore he wouldn't hear it. i have just brilliantly answered my own question. lol
bitsy_boffin,
Sep 25, 5:34am
The apparent neutrino velocity over short distance is a surprising finding certainly, but there is a lot of work still to do in establishing that this is not an error of measurement - which is the much more plausible answer than "neutrinos can travel faster than light, sometimes".
The first bit of sanity I have seen regarding those speedy neutrinos, you would need a fast hand on your stopwatch.
marzuka,
Sep 25, 6:16am
bah, my semi kooky explanation based on something akin QM tunneling velocities, is that it is probably just an intergrated displacement of the neutrino's wavefunction due to induced bias created by travelling through 700km of rock.
marzuka,
Sep 25, 6:34am
note edited #42 for errant calculation, is even more kooky proposition now lol.
richard198,
Nov 17, 11:00am
We used to measure the speed of light when I was at school approx. 35 yrs. ago. It's not difficult, but you don't use a stop watch!
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