• [object Object]@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Okay, but what if I go the speed of light minus 1m/s and shine a flashlight, can I catch the photons?

    • nexguy@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Light ALWAYS travels away from you at the speed of light no matter how fast you and your flashlight are going. Something has to give and that is time. It may look to outside observers, not traveling that fast along with you, that light is going 1 m/s faster than you… but you would also appear to be moving in super slow motion trying to reach out for the beam. The faster you go the slower time moves for you.

      • not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 month ago

        no i think the light would indeed just travel 1m/s away for them, they could never catch it as in catching up to it because they can’t reach the speed of light instead their mass gets more and more

    • AirBreather@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You’re already traveling at the speed of light minus 1m/s relative to a reference frame that’s traveling away from you at that speed.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      If you’re going at the speed of light minus 1 m/s and you turn on a flashlight, the beam emitted by the flashlight will be travelling at the speed of light, according to your measurements. Time passes slower the faster you travel.