Relativity & Light

[aerathi]

I haven't had a Physics class since high school (like 13 years >.<) but a few days ago I got bored and started reading about special & general relativity. While I was thinking about it there was one thing that I didn't understand.

If a beam of light was in uniform motion traveling at the speed of light, shouldn't all the laws of physics apply there as well as they do at other speeds? But wouldn't it be impossible for that beam of light to measure the speed of another beam of light (or itself for that matter) since the time component would be zero and produce divide by zero problems? So wouldn't that mean that not even light can travel at the speed of light while obeying the laws of physics?

Or am I just speaking gibberish?

 

[RyanX]

If a beam of light was in uniform motion traveling at the speed of light, shouldn't all the laws of physics apply there as well as they do at other speeds? But wouldn't it be impossible for that beam of light to measure the speed of another beam of light (or itself for that matter) since the time component would be zero and produce divide by zero problems? So wouldn't that mean that not even light can travel at the speed of light while obeying the laws of physics?

Hi Aerathi,

You may want to read some of these news articles for a starter:

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/163826-Signals-seem-to-travel-faster-than-light
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/138317-We-have-broken-speed-of-light-
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/143283-Hypertime-why-we-need-2-dimensions-of-time

If you want to test your math skills, you could try reading this paper on Bessel X waves:

_http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/physics/pdf/0603/0603104v1.pdf

It seems that we are still uncovering the laws of physics and how they apply to light...

 

[John G]

I haven't had a Physics class since high school (like 13 years >.<) but a few days ago I got bored and started reading about special & general relativity. While I was thinking about it there was one thing that I didn't understand.

If a beam of light was in uniform motion traveling at the speed of light, shouldn't all the laws of physics apply there as well as they do at other speeds? But wouldn't it be impossible for that beam of light to measure the speed of another beam of light (or itself for that matter) since the time component would be zero and produce divide by zero problems? So wouldn't that mean that not even light can travel at the speed of light while obeying the laws of physics?

Or am I just speaking gibberish?

Let's see, if we look at a photon, from our perspective it appears to never age as it travels (not that an aging photon would get gray hair or anything). From the photon's point of view, it experiences its complete worldline life through the universe all at once, so what it "sees" is not anything we could relate to. Perhaps a photon has a quantum life beyond its relativity one where it can keep experiencing another complete but different worldline life path through a universe?

 

[MrGullible]

Some of the things in science articles about physics seem a little hard to believe anyway, but especially some of the things about time or using measurement.

For example, in one of the SOTT articles referenced above where the scientists claim a microwave photon traveled between 2 pyramids instantaneously, I can't fathom how they could measure something as such small units as timing the travel of a particle at the speed of light between one close point and another. Does anyone have a pointer to what type of high resolution timing approaches scientists use in these types of experiments?

Also, it seems to me that if time is cyclical, wave-like, or circular, then any point in time is accelerating. Also, if gravity affects time, or other things affect it, then how can one hope to "synchronize their watches" and also get enough resolution to be able to measure events so small?

It is wacky thinking like mine above that sort of makes my mind shut down when pondering these things :)

 

[aerathi]

Interesting stuff, thanks.