ah....Mr. Brainiac made it home finally! Good even to you!

long day at the home depot

shopping for flashlights?

bulbs

most burn up before reaching lightspeed tho

I like the philosophical stuff also. Especially as it provides an impetus for more concrete improvements in our knowledge.

Your original question is kind of interesting in that respect, as it's asserted that Einstein largely came up with his initial ideas about relativity by imagining what the world would look like if he were riding a beam of light.

I still wonder more really about the inverse of the question...if the emitter is at light speed traveling away from the observer...would he see the light?(I really already knew the answer for the original question ,just not the facts behind it,just wanted to get some people going whether educated or not)
[Message Edited]

...not if he put it where the light don't shine.......

Good...seems we're on the same wavelength....though my last 'formal' Physics was 33 years ago.
What's more fun is that I'm currently typing on a wizz-bang Titanium Apple....slowly getting the hang of it....
Good thing the keyboard is vaguelly 'normal'...

aargh....I plead the 5th with the spelling....

I want to know what happened to the mirrored sphere that the electric torch was in several months ago.

And what happens to the glass that surrounds the glowing element that emites the light from the electric torch?

If a flashlight shines in the forest and there's no one there to see it does it still travel at light speed or does it wait for a bear to fart and the sound to catch up?

"wavelength"...I get it

LMAO@ footsie!!!! You are way to funny!! I wouldn't wait for the sound... it may be a SBD and gas the enire forest!!!!

Okay, I'll do my own spell check... the word sould be "entire" not "enire"

ImStein2 - spellchuck iznt necesarry,Jefo will provide

"Jefo"?

aka el jefe

Light travels at the speed of light (in a vacuum, at least) regardless of the speedd of the emitting object. If you were travelling at half the speed of light, towards a beam of light having been emitted already, it would appear to you to be approaching at the speed of light, rather than 1.5x. Same probably works, its not like firing a gun from a moving vehicle, it wouldn't travel faster because your flashlight is already travelling at lightspeed. Darn quantum mechanics don't really make much sense to us hyoomahns.

Mrs _footsie_ - If a flashlight shines in the forest and there's no one there to see it does it still travel at light speed or does it wait for a bear to fart and the sound to catch up?

this is simply a special case of the Pratchett comment about this history monks. specifically, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is present to hear it, does it still make a sound? this is a silly question, since there is always someone to see it, especially the squirrel wondering why the world is suddenly moving sideways

_footsie_, the real question is, do we suspect you have chocolate about your person? if so, when what makes you think you are alone in the forrest?

having enjoyed this thread, i am wondering where all the igon vectors and comments about the uncertainty principle are?

ps. i dont remember how to spell igon vectors, but they were written like |x> and encloses the variable

*eeek* someone ate half my post! /me *has another go*

having enjoyed this thread, i am wondering where all the igon vectors and comments about the uncertainty principle are?

ps. i dont remember how to spell igon vectors, but they were written like |x> and <x| where the operator <| and |>: encloses the variable

/me *rolles eyes*
now there is a stray colon!