Questions about the Speed of Light

[JamesDJarvis]

1) Things travel at 100% the speed of light all the time, some of them are called photons.
I'm figuring a vessel traveling at 100% the speed of light maty see the whole ubniverse stand still but there is still time on the vessel.

2) Inside the starship that travels at 100% light speed, someone has to go from the back of the starship to the front. So, with regard to things immobile outside of the starship, he is moving the speed of light as there is no relative difference between movement on the vessel and movement of the vessel to the outside universe.

3) An observer will still see the photon moving at the speed of light, it does not cease to exist in space/time. At time t it is in postyion x at t+1 it is in position x+1. (i think)

Time dilation does not impact the entire universe it impacts the traveller.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Not sure I will sleep better to have learnt that though...

Then you probably don't want to read "An Imaginary Tale," the history of the square root of negative one. Or "e: The Story of A Number," the story of, well, e=2.71...

Both of those go into all sorts of proofs and history. The former left me with a severe headache: I couldn't follow the proofs (though I am hoping that is because of typos: I found one typo in a proof; I can't follow most of the rest of the proofs ).

One thing to consider about i: The discoverers were NOT looking for solutions to x^2+1=0. They were looking for solutions to x^3+a*x+b=0, in cases where there's a real solution, and two imaginary solutions.

Would it make it any easier to know that i^i is not only defined, but if I recall correctly, it's a real number?

 

[WayneLigon]

There's another thing to consider, also. An object that reaches light speed also has it's mass become infinite. I'm not sure that would be a good thing for everything else in the universe

 

[S'mon]

A starship at the speed of light would not experience any passage of time, yup. It would also have infinite mass and zero length.

Starships can't travel at the speed of light. Photons can travel at the speed of light because they're not really objects, as we would understand it - they have zero rest mass and only 'exist' when travelling at lightspeed.

 

[Turanil]

...at the speed of light would not experience any passage of time, (and) would also have infinite mass and zero length.

Isn't it also the definition of a black hole properties? Size = 0, mass not infinite but horribly massive nontheless, time as we know it much altered. Another clue to something of utmost importance?

 

[RithTheAwakener]

I just take comfort in the fact that somewhere, someone actually understands this stuff.

yep, my head just exploded. i need to get this checked out by a doctor or something.

 

[JamesDJarvis]

Here is an interesting little thougght piece regarding light. What happens to photons we observe?

 

[S'mon]

Here is an interesting little thougght piece regarding light. What happens to photons we observe?

Their wave function spreads them out AIR. A photon isn't really a particle at all, it's a probability construct.

 

[S'mon]

Isn't it also the definition of a black hole properties? Size = 0, mass not infinite but horribly massive nontheless, time as we know it much altered. Another clue to something of utmost importance?

Um, yeah. Certainly we don't understand black holes. Theoretically they don't have to have huge mass, there may be micro black holes. For a star to form a black hole though it would have to be about 13-14 times more massive than Sol.

 

[JamesDJarvis]

Their wave function spreads them out AIR. A photon isn't really a particle at all, it's a probability construct.

and in 1 second it is 186,000 miles further from where it was the second before unless something gets in the way. You can't find it where it was no matter how you look. Physically looking at it changes the nature of the photon.