Timeline for Young and Freedman Proof: No Observer Can Travel at the Speed of Light
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 11, 2018 at 16:04 | vote | accept | Dschumanji | ||
| Mar 11, 2018 at 16:03 | comment | added | Dschumanji | @tyler_house, I feel the same way about the proof. I suppose should just look at it as a motivation to abandon the Galilean transformation as reference frames approach the speed of light. It would be better to understand how the postulates lead to the Lorentz transformation and then look at the consequences of this new transformation. | |
| Mar 11, 2018 at 7:57 | comment | added | tyler_house | Dschumanji, the proof you are citing is not rigorous of course and is just trying to support the most widely recognized opinion on that matter. There still are debates whether it is possible to move with the speed of light and as @Polhode mentioned, whether time can stand still, if you are moving with the speed of light. The reason this debate even exists, is that when you put the speed of light as the relative velocity to the stationary observer you get singularities in the Lorentz transformations and other formulas of Special Relativity. | |
| Mar 11, 2018 at 3:00 | comment | added | Polhode | I believe Young and Freedman’s proof is false. The observer “moving” with the speed of light will see no time pass regardless of how much time passes for the “stationary” observer. Since no time passes for him, the light beam will not advance in front of him. This is exactly what the “stationary” observer sees, hence no contradiction. | |
| Mar 10, 2018 at 21:50 | comment | added | Dschumanji | The line of reasoning you introduced by tyler_house and @Rococo makes sense, but it seems to me that more needs to be assumed about measuring the speed of light in an inertial frame of reference than the original postulate states. Do either of you find the Young and Freedman proof somewhat lacking? | |
| Mar 10, 2018 at 19:53 | comment | added | Rococo | I guess I would just add to this: the point is that in relativity that two observers can measure different non-zero distances between two objects, but if two objects are literally touching at the same point that must be the same for all observers to avoid a logical contradiction. | |
| Mar 10, 2018 at 19:36 | history | answered | tyler_house | CC BY-SA 3.0 |