You get in to a car and travel at the speed of light. What will happen if you turn on the headlights?

Question

First, I know it's not possible, but, what would happen?

Answer 1

You would travel as fast as the light beams, therefore no light beams will be seen.

Answer 2

Albert Einstein would think about such things as he rode the trolley in Bern. He worked as a clerk in the federal patent office so had lots of time to perform thought experiments.

One of his most famous was how would the laws of physics be different to an observer inside a trolley car moving at the speed of light. The surprising answer was that they would be the same in every way as to an observer at rest. This is the principle of "invariance" -- and it applies to uniform motion.

So to answer your question, the headlights would function just as they would with the car at rest or at any other speed in between.

Answer 3

nothing. it's as if you haven't opened your headlights. it's like, it's just open - open, but you wouldn't be able to see it coz you're traveling at the same speed that those lights are travelling at.

but still, it's impossible. :)

Answer 4

you'll see into the future

Answer 5

This question gets asked daily.

Since it's not possible, we don't know what will happen.

But at 99% of the speed of light, which is possible, your headlights would move forward at the speed of light, as required by special relativity. And if you had equipment to measure the speed at which the light moves away from you, it would measure the speed as the speed of light. And an observer that is stationary, will measure the same thing.

Pick your speed, 99.99999% of c, same results.

.

Answer 6

Nothing out of the ordinary will happen as you approach the speed of light. Your lights will illuminate the space in front of you just like they always do. But you'll get really lousy reception on your XM satellite radio.