Does light travel at the speed of time?

Question

the concept that time stops when you travel at the speed of light is something Iv'e never agreed with. but, what if light was instant and because you can't travel faster than time, because then time must go backwards, perhaps light travels at the speed of time. I belive this makes more sense than the idea of not being able to travel at the speed of light. it's just like traveling along the motorway at 60mph, you drive next to another car traveling at 60mph, the car seems to be still. time must have a speed if the universe is expanding, but if all this is true the universe must be expanding at the speed of time (speed of light).

Answer 1

Time does not have a velocity. But it is indeed linked to the speed of light. It is not a 'man-made concept' but a fundamental component or property of the universe. Time does not stop at the speed of light, if you were travelling at the speed of light you would not observe time stopping or slowing, but your time would appear to slow down to an observer who was not travelling at relativistic speeds.

The car analogy is interesting - what you are observing is the small relative difference in the velocities of the two vehicles, it has nothing to do with time.

Answer 2

The concept of time doesn't stop for the object travelling at the speed of light, it's just that an observer at relative rest will observe time having slowed down for the object. It's all explained by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Try reading it before you come up with your own wooly ideas.

Answer 3

whoa that is an interesting thought.

Answer 4

yes but time is a dimension and light is not

Answer 5

ignore the skeptics! i am a real physics nerd and love studying relativity and i must say that your thinking is the kind that drove einstein to do relativity. i think that this is a genius thought, bravo!

Answer 6

It annoys me intensely when I read on here people saying that time is a human construct. Bollox. Hours and seconds may have been invented by us - but time itself wasn't. It's an integral part of the fabric of the universe. Fact.

I don't think time "stops" as such when anything reaches light speed. That's an entirely mute point, since according to fundamental laws of physics, nothing can reach light speed. Ever. (Except perhaps certain sub-atomic particles called tachyons, but that's a different subject).

Time is not a constant thing, it is not the same experience for all, it is entirely dependant on the relative movement of an observer - which is freaky and hard to understand, but has been shown to be true (Special theory of Relativity).

The speed of light, on the other hand, IS constant, in all circumstances and regardless of relative movement.

Your car analogy doesn't really work. The car may seem to be still, but time doesn't.

And light does not travel instantly. It takes time to reach any where - if it didn't, we would not be able to exist within the universe - everything would be too bright.

I think you've asked a good question, really, but it doesn't work (in my opinion). :-)

Answer 7

Time is only relative to the speed of light in that it is a factor by which it is measured and understood, to say that light travels at the speed of time is like saying that a car travels at the speed of movement.

Answer 8

Its interesting, but something travelling very quickly changes time itself, as can be shown by the calculations they have to use to keep GPS working. the satellites are travelling so fast, they are in a slightly slower timeframe than the earth. We have to adjust the timebase of them to make them accurate.

Answer 9

Light travels with no time elapsed on its 'own' clock. I'll try to explain.

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity (1905) can be used to calculate time measurement differences between objects separating with a constant velocity. The theory provides a transform equation so that two clocks separating with a 'relativistic' velocity can have their 'times' agreed upon. This transform is given by: -

t(at rest) = t(traveller)

..............._________

...............√(1 - (v/c)²)

Where 'c' is the speed of light and 'v' the traveller's velocity, which may be expressed as a percentage of the speed of light ((say) 0.99999c).

If a photon of light, which travels at the speed of light c, could carry a clock then the above equation becomes: -

t(at rest) = t(photon)

..............._________

....................0

In other words,  the t(at rest) time is infinite unless the t(photons) elapsed time is zero. Thus, a photon travels with its clock dilated out to a stop and, hence, crosses the universe in zero elapsed time. Time travels inexorably forward but at a rate determined by the expansion of the universe and perhaps a thermodynamic, tendency towards chaos.

Answer 10

The more I'm thinking about your question, the more baffled I become. Time is relative, while speed of light is constant. That would outrule the notion that light travels at the speed of time. On the other hand, your example with cars is good: if you're stationary, the flow of cars representing time is whizzing by; if you start going in their direction faster and faster, their relative motion will slow down. Once you achieve exactly the same speed as those cars, their flow in relation to you will stop. (That's why I do believe that at the speed of light time does stop for you).

I gave you a star for interesting question, well done!

Answer 11

No,it takes time for light to travel.

Answer 12

no.. light travel at speed of light...lol

haha i like ur thinking!

Answer 13

i don't think time has a speed. i don't think it's traveling anywhere. someone told me the speed of light was like a yardstick, i think they are correct!

Answer 14

Time is variable as shown in many theories and shown in practice now during recovered voyages of probes and even on the Gemini and Apollo Missions.  Time is always relevant to the observer and may often travel at differing speeds to anyone else, for instance look at the general day to day things, you may think time is flying by when the person next to you thinks its draging.

The speed of light however is currently a constant and although it can be bent a little still moves at the same speed, yes there are some theories being worked on that are trying to prove that light can be affected in speed by certain changes of gravity or matter, but has never been physically proved .... yet.

The speed of time, is really a no starter and has been debunked so many times now due to its fluid and variable state.

Answer 15

Time can pass at different rates depending of various factors, speed and  gravity. If something were to approach the speed of light then time for them would slow down when compared to someone else. For example, if i am travelling at 99% of the speed of light, for me everything would look normal, i would look at my watch and one second would pass as one second. But if i looked out the window at a stationary object then time for them would appear to be going faster, for every second i see on my watch, maybe 10 seconds will pass for theirs. The same thing can be said for the observer, but they will see my watch ticking very slowly.

So the rate at which time passes is all relative to where you are and what you are doing, and this is known as time dilation.

And another thing, the universe could be expanding faster than the speed of light but this would not mean that anything is locally travelling faster than the speed of light, therefore it does not break the law of physics that nothing with rest mass can go faster than the speed of light. The furthest galaxies that we can see are at the very limit of our visible universe, however there may be galaxies beyond that which we cannot see, due to the fact that they are moving away from us at faster than the speed of light.

To give an example, if two cars travel at 50mph away from each other in the opposite direction, then how fast are they moving apart... 100mph.

Answer 16

"the concept that time stops when you travel at the speed of light is something Iv'e never agreed with"

- That's because it doesn't stop, it just slows down.  Time is a man-made concept.