Driving a car faster than the speed of light...?

Question

If I'm driving my Toyota Corolla faster than the speed of light and I turn on my headlights, do they illuminate anything? (Or does nothing get illuminated because I am traveling faster than the light they emit, there-by "outrunning" the photons emitted from my headlights?)

Answer 1

Forget it, this question is becoming very tiresome.

Answer 2

Sorry, Dave, I've heard that question many times, and I know my answer is not satisfying, but you can't travel faster than the speed of light. It's sort of like asking if I play a trumpet as loud as I can, can I cause the vibrations produced to not make sound waves. By definition, sound is a vibration through a medium, so how can you vibrate a medium and not vibrate a medium at the same time?

Answer 3

Well, they would illuminate something because the headlight do not just shine striaght forward in the cars path but also to the right and left.

Answer 4

since you can't go faster than the speed of light, the question is meaningless.

And tiring, as it gets repeated every day or so!

Answer 5

When you achieved light speed, the infinite energy (which I believe can only be physically achieved in some way involving Chuck Norris) created a black hole that sucked up the universe and rendered any further actions moot.

Answer 6

they would move at the speed you are moving at plus the speed of light

Answer 7

I asked a similar question to my teacher in high school physics.  I asked if you're in a space shuttle going at the speed of light, and turn on the lights, will it go at the speed of light, or twice the speed of light.  He replied, "Both".  I answered something like, "Both? How could it be both?".

Relativity is a bit difficult for me to understand and I still don't.

I may get some thumbdowns for this, but I would think that it would go at twice the speed of light.  I kind of disagree with Einstein!  Although not expert enough to have given him a chance.

Answer 8

If you read the history of physics you'll find that this is the type of question Einstein asked himself before developing Special Relativity.  What Einstein discovered was that the speed of light relative to you, no matter how fast you are traveling, is always 186,000 mi/hr.  This realization led Einstein to conclude that nothing can travel faster than light, therefore your question has no meaning.  Sorry, that's just the way nature functions.

Answer 9

Nothing can go faster than the speed of light not even light so if you somehow achieved the speed of light, which is impossible since you have mass, then the lights that you shine would be going the same speed as you.