I just came up with a thought experiment that will break the speed of light!

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Engineer

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
701
126
What if you turned on the flashlight and put it on a moving treadmill?

Oh shit......:sneaky:
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,671
13,835
126
www.anyf.ca
Engineer said:
What if you turned on the flashlight and put it on a moving treadmill?

Oh shit......:sneaky:
Click to expand...

And the flashlight is facing forward while treadmill is spinning at the speed of light. Will the light ever make it out of the flashlight? Or will it actually come out faster? The hard hitting questions. :D
 
IronWing

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
72,994
34,200
136
What if you take a fiber optic cable and roll it up in a tight coil? The light traveling on the outside of the coil travels a longer pathway than the light in the center so takes longer to get to the other end. Extrapointerprolating the shift to ever tighter coils, taking the limit as the radius goes to zero, and the g-forces go to infinity, we should be able to travel faster than light speed as we track the circumference of an infinitesimally small coil at the center.
 
Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,671
13,835
126
www.anyf.ca
IronWing said:
What if you take a fiber optic cable and roll it up in a tight coil? The light traveling on the outside of the coil travels a longer pathway than the light in the center so takes longer to get to the other end. Extrapointerprolating the shift to ever tighter coils, taking the limit as the radius goes to zero, and the g-forces go to infinity, we should be able to travel faster than light speed as we track the circumference of an infinitesimally small coil at the center.
Click to expand...

Actually this is why if you notice there are often loops of coiled fibre in the poles. This is typically near the customer prem and is called a service loop. It makes the internet faster. When you call to get a faster service they just go up the pole and coil it up with smaller but more loops. Only thing is it slightly increase the latency, but for much more speed. For gaming you are actually better off getting the lower tier fibre service for the lower latency. I totally just made all of that up.
 
Iron Woode

Iron Woode

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 10, 1999
31,309
12,824
136
but what if you are on the spaceship and you flash your light and then see a double rainbow?
 
gorcorps

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,741
456
126
Red Squirrel said:
Actually this is why if you notice there are often loops of coiled fibre in the poles. This is typically near the customer prem and is called a service loop. It makes the internet faster. When you call to get a faster service they just go up the pole and coil it up with smaller but more loops. Only thing is it slightly increase the latency, but for much more speed. For gaming you are actually better off getting the lower tier fibre service for the lower latency. I totally just made all of that up.
Click to expand...

I would certainly hope everyone would know you made that up, but I guess you never know anymore.
 
TheGardener

TheGardener

Golden Member
Jul 19, 2014
1,945
33
56
Cerpin Taxt said:
Actually you can slow light down. You just can't go any faster than c.

But what do I know? You're the science expert.
Click to expand...
Some guy named Einstein said that energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. So if Einstein is correct, you can square the speed of light [C], hence that constant speed can be surpassed! It's called Warp Speed... Ahead Mr. Sulu, Warp 5!
 
dawp

dawp

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
11,347
2,710
136
Iron Woode said:
but what if you are on the spaceship and you flash your light and then see a double rainbow?
Click to expand...

What if your spaceship is at light speed and you turn on the fleshlight, will you get off slower or faster?
 
W

WHAMPOM

Diamond Member
Feb 28, 2006
7,628
183
106
SaltyNuts said:
Imagine a flashlight. It is turned on. So, naturally, the light is coming out to the flashlight at the speed of light.

Now, imagine that flashlight attached to a car going 100mph. The light coming out of the flashlight is still coming out of the flashlight at the speed of light RELATIVE TO THE CAR, but remember the car is going 100mph, so relative to anything other than the car the light is now moving at the speed of light + 100 mph. Speed of light thus broken.

Have no scientists realized this?
Click to expand...

No the speed is the same, just at different frequencies, RED/SHIFT, BLUE/SHIFT.
 
Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
20
81
GagHalfrunt said:
Scientists are handicapped by understanding special relativity better than you do.
Click to expand...
:thumbsup:




Red Squirrel said:
If you go fast enough the light will even change colour because of the dopler effect. That's why those assholes that always drive too fast and dangerously have blue head lights as the wave length shifted.

On serious note I always kind of wondered about that myself, everything is relative, so technically something that is producing light and moving, that light should be relative to that thing. But light is a bit odd and I think it actually ends up breaking that rule.

You can probably use a laser to make casino chips, as well. That is the important thing right there.
Click to expand...
Velocity is a function of distance versus time. Normally the "time" part of that equation is assumed to be constant.
Go faster, and the time part starts changing too. Light coming out of your headlights on your high-speed spacecraft looks like it's moving at normal light speed only because time's moving slower for you. It's going at its usual meters per second, but your "second" got a lot bigger, so it doesn't have to cover as many meters relative to your spacecraft in order to have the same apparent velocity.


Lasers can make casino chips too, but only until you try to measure how many chips you have. Then it gets a bit hazy.
 
B

BxgJ

Golden Member
Jul 27, 2015
1,054
123
106
Jeff7 said:
:thumbsup:




Velocity is a function of distance versus time. Normally the "time" part of that equation is assumed to be constant.
Go faster, and the time part starts changing too. Light coming out of your headlights on your high-speed spacecraft looks like it's moving at normal light speed only because time's moving slower for you. It's going at its usual meters per second, but your "second" got a lot bigger, so it doesn't have to cover as many meters relative to your spacecraft in order to have the same apparent velocity.


Lasers can make casino chips too, but only until you try to measure how many chips you have. Then it gets a bit hazy.
Click to expand...

Distance isn't constant either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Length_contraction
 
MongGrel

MongGrel

Lifer
Dec 3, 2013
38,466
3,067
121
Engineer said:
What if you turned on the flashlight and put it on a moving treadmill?

Oh shit......:sneaky:
Click to expand...

I made a fool out of myself one that one the first time I saw it, till I stopped and thought about it a minute.

Sans the flashlight, I mean.
 
Last edited:
John Connor

John Connor

Lifer
Nov 30, 2012
22,757
619
121
What if I could break apart and map every atom in an object and send it to the far ends of the universe? It would be like a self-extracting archive.

And poker chips? Those have RFID in them...
 
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