• Question: If you are in a car travelling at the speed of light, what would happen if you turned the lights on?

    Asked by tetrisace to Pete, Rebecca, SallyB, Sally, Sian on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sally Fenton

      Sally Fenton answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      ooo I don’t know…and I don’t think this can be tested as I am not sure anything can travel at the speed of light except for light! but I assume that if you turned the lights on you would still be able to see them because you are only travelling at the same speed that light goes..not any faster!

    • Photo: Rebecca Randell

      Rebecca Randell answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I’m not sure if cars will ever be able to travel at the speed of light but if they did i’m sure we would be able to still see light. The light may look different though as we are travelling at the same speed as it

    • Photo: Peter Styring

      Peter Styring answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      “as you approach the speed of light with your headlights on, however, you would still measure the light beam racing away from your car at 186,000 miles per second (c). A ‘stationary’ observer watching this happen, though, would not then measure the beam’s speed at almost twice c. Relativity says that all observers always get the same measurement for c.” See http://www.physlink.com/education/askexperts/ae169.cfm

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