Einstein is credited for setting the speed of light as the maximum speed possibl

Question

Einstein is credited for setting the speed of light as the maximum speed possible in our universe. That is, energy and mass cannot travel faster than 186,000 miles/second. Actually Einstein took experimental evidence that showed the speed of light was a constant and reformulated the laws of physics to agree with that observation. Discuss the following points:

1. If you were moving towards a light source would you expect light to have the same speed going by as when you were moving away from the light source? Why? Can you think of an analogy using a thrown baseball? Is this analogy consistent with the constancy of the speed of light?

2. How could you use the light from a star and the orbital motion of the Earth towards and away from the star (as it moves in its elliptical orbit) to show that the speed of light is a constant? This is a real life example of the situation in question 1 above.

3. If the speed of light (miles/hour) is the same regardless of the relative motion between the observer and light source, how might distortion of space and time be used to explain how this is possible? By distortion I mean time slowing down or the space metric becoming shorter. These are referred to as time dialation and length contraction in special relativity.

4. It bothers most people that we cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Do you think this is true, i.e. the speed of light is the maximum speed? Why or why not. (this is not a trivial question; it addresses how we understand and deal with our reality.)

Explanation / Answer

3. If the speed of light (miles/hour) is the same regardless of the relative motion between the observer and light source, how might distortion of space and time be used to explain how this is possible? By distortion I mean time slowing down or the space metric becoming shorter. These are referred to as time dialation and length contraction in special relativity.

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