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Faster than light

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shvarz:
It travels at the same speed for all observers.  It has been tested in numerous experiments, and the whole general theory of relativity has been done to incorporate this observation into physics.

I say it's just a bug.  whoever was coding our universe just forgot to apply newtonian physics to light :)

Botsareus:
"It travels at the same speed for all observers." How is that possible?

Here is another picture:

 --------( L1<----A---->L2 ) ------>

                       B

For A to abserve that the light is traveling the same speed

L1 = speedA - speedoflight
L2 = speedA + speedoflight

For B to abserve that the light is traveling the same speed

L1 = -speedoflight
L2 = speedoflight

Note:

-speedoflight != (speedA - speedoflight)
speedoflight != (speedA + speedoflight)

gg laws, or what?

PurpleYouko:
So here is another little conundrum.

It is supposed to be impossible for any observer in a box to be able to tell anything about the outside world by means of any experiment that he does that remains entirely inside the box.

He cannot perform any experiment that interacts with anything outside the box in any way.

Supposedly, he cannot ever know how fast the box is moving provided it does not undergo any kind of acceleration.

This is a very well known scientific law that is taught in pretty much every physics class.


This doesn't sit well with relativity.

Think about this scenario.

The observer has a mechanism consiting of a laser that is able to emit a beam of light in a specific direction and at a specific wavelength, and a very narrow detector which is able to detect a photon of the specific wavelength of the laser.
Any change at all in wavelength or trajectory will cause the photon to NOT be detected.

If the observer rotates the mechanism then starts it going, he is going to see diferences if relativity is correct.

If the beam of light is being emited in the direction of travel then the wavelength is going to be blue shifted at the detector.

If the beam of light is being emited opposite to the direction of travel then it will be red shifted. Just like light from distant galaxies is.

if the beam is perpendicular to the direction of travel then it won't ever hit the detector at all since the box (and therefore the detector) will have moved out of the way by the time the beam gets there.
The only way the beam could hit the detector is if the photons are moving with a velocity relative to the laser source rather than at a universal speed.
Remember these photons are being ejected from the laser perpendicular to the direction of travel so they will not be imparted with any forward velocity at all. They will be moving in a straight line from the position that the laser was when they were fired.

So which LAW of physics is right and which is wrong cuz they can't both be right.

 :sly:  PY

shvarz:
Guys, seriously - read the website that I posted above!  It goes over these questions!

Bots - theory of relativity explains how it is possible.  The whole point of theory is to explain this strage fact.

PY - there is not going to be any change in wavelengths frequency.  For observer in a box everything is going to look as if he were standing still.  Look at the example with the train in the web-site I listed above.  It is a similar idea.

MightyPenguin:
PY, are you actually a physicist, or one of these crazee internet people who just pretend because their actual lives amount to sod all? I'm beginning to wonder... ;)

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