Thread: Hmmmmmm?
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Old 07-August-2002, 05:09 AM
Silas Silas is offline
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Quote:
On 2002-08-06 18:02, g99 wrote:
So to a stationary observer the headlight beams would be traveling at twice the speed of light. Is that right?
Nope... To the stationary observer, the car, travelling at the speed of light, would emit a photon of light, also travelling at the speed of light. The two would appear to travel together.

Suppose the car turned on its turn-signals: i.e., emitting light at 90 degrees to its path of travel: the light would travel at c, not at c times the square root of two, as one might expect from vector addition.

Suppose the car flashes its brake-lights: i.e., emitting light backwards. The light would travel at c, not at a speed of zero, as one might expect from vector addition.

Given these ideas, the Lorentz-Fitzgerald equations fall out.

Silas
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