Faster than light?

Question

If light cannot escape a black hole because its escape velocity is faster than the velocity of light, then would the light particle be travelling faster than the speed of light as its attracted to the black holes gravitational mass. Would it have a "terminal velocity" as it approachs the singularity that is faster than the speed of light????

Answer 1

Good question! Terminal velocity is where a particle's force in weight is equal to the drag it creates or resistance. Once past the black hole's event horizon I would theorize that electromagnetic radiation would almost instantly achieve its terminal velocity. The gravity in a black hole really can't be defined, at least as of yet, but I would think the physics of it would defy that of which we know. I believe light speed would most likely be busted as a black hole would devastate it. Perhaps time is an enhanced factor in a black hole which would explain its ability to halt the progression of light and actually reverse it.

Exceptionally intriguing!!!

Answer 2

Light has a terminal velocity everywhere, and that is always "c".

As far as black holes are concerned, the only escape velocity we can describe is the escape velocity from the event horizon.  Beyond the event horizon, what happens to light is lost forever as it approaches the singularity, but theoretically, it would still be traveling at "c"; no more, no less.

Another way to answer your question is that in the immediate environment of the singularity, all physical calculations break down.  For example space and time are important parameters in the calculation of velocity, but beyond the event horizon, they are, for all intents and purposes, one and the same.

So how can you calculate the speed of light, or anything else,  when time and space are completely and utterly interchangeable?  Does v=d/t or t/d ? ....

It's complicated.

Answer 3

No it wouldn't, for the same reason that the headlights on a moving car don't move at a total speed greater than the speed of light.  You would naturally think that if a car were moving forward then the speed which the photons were leaving the headlights would equal the speed of light plus the speed of the car, but this is not the case.  Lightspeed isn't altered like a physical object.  It stays at a constant.  

Since a black hole is a gravitational force, and not a physical entity, it doesn't actually travel at any speed and simply alters the travel path of anything within it's event horizon. The light particle is simply doing what is easiest, it would take more energy than it has to go against the gravitational force, so it goes with the flow at it's constant rate.

Answer 4

well since they say light has no mass it may not be attracted to gravity. also you can't say anything (not a photon either) can travel faster than the speed of light. the big E said it and they will get mad. and my guess for the velocity is yes.

now i have a question about the photon model accounting for the frequency dependence of light's energy and explained the ability of matter and rad. to be in thermal equal. what is the frequency dependence?

Answer 5

nothing really prove that light velocity is the fasters velocity in the universe.