If you're driving in your car at the speed of light and you turn on your headlights, what happens? amirite?

Out of all the things that could happen if you traveled at the speed of light, you're interested in *this*?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

hell yea! I mean its really somethin to think about

by Anonymous 13 years ago

i believe it would go forward normally. it's like jumping forward off a moving car. if you could move at 299,792,458 m / s

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Not according to Einstein. The light coming from the headlights would be moving at the same rate as the car.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

If I have been taught correctly, then the light would not project in front of you. Since light travels at the same speed in all places at all times and under every condition, there's no way it would speed up. Einstein said it. Also, half way through writing this comment, Anonymous above ninja'd me. :(

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Actually, light doesn't travel the same speed in all conditions. You can find the speed in a given medium by doing 1/Squareroot(permeability x Permittivity). In free space, the speed of light is about 3x10^8 m/s In water, light would travel only about 2.25 x 10^8 m/s

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Ehh question doesn't really make any sense at all if the situation's impossible (we're pretty sure that nothing with mass can achieve light speed).

by Anonymous 13 years ago

First of all, you couldn't go at the speed of light. You could go 99% of the way there, but you can't actually get there unless you're light. And going that fast would literally take infinite energy. And if I understand correctly, here's what would happen if you turned on the headlights: Time would slow down. This is a built in law of physics that prevents anything from exceeding the speed of light.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

also if you go that fast, you'd weigh a sh!tload more

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah your mass slowly increaces to near infinity as you get closer to light speed, which is why you need infinite energy to get near it. There are also a bunch of other problems with trying to go that fast just through propulsion, and even if you got to 99%, that's still not too fast when you're talking about the whole universe. That's why I think shortcuts like wormholes or warp drives are a much better idea.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Question Made famous by Steven wright. If anyone cares to know.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You would see the light around you, instead of in front of you.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

wouldnt they just turn on

by Anonymous 13 years ago

First of all, objects with mass cannot travel the speed of light, and light always travels at the speed of light. If you were traveling very close to the speed of light, there would be a doppler effect. The electromagnetic (light) waves would pile up on each other and appear to have a a higher frequency. So your headlights which normally are on the visible light spectrum may turn into high frequency gamma radiation!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

reference frame anyone? light will always be going away from you at the speed of light.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I am pretty sure if you are going that fast you wanna be watching out for the bend not playing with lights. This is why you turn your lights on before you start your journey. Though being a lil more serious, think of the pressures etc on the body, I doubt you could reach for that switch.

by Anonymous 13 years ago