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[–] 53 points 5 months ago (10 children)

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

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  • [–] 42 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 22 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    I think the answer is that you are only traveling at almost light speed from reference frame of your start position.

    The light of the lamp travels at light speed from your own reference speed which to you in a vacuum is 0.

    Anyone correct if wrong please?

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  • [–] 26 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

    Correct. Physics gets really, really weird at relativistic speeds. Something to keep in mind is that the speed of light isn’t actually the speed of light itself, but rather the speed of causality - the universe’s hard limit at which any interactions can occur. Even if you are traveling at .99c from a certain reference frame, space time itself warps in such a way that light traveling away from you is still measured at 1c

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months 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.

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