Linked Questions

10 votes
3 answers
34k views

Is it possible to stop time? [duplicate]

Assuming the spacetime principle, if the space is modified the time does too. So if the velocity in the space is increase, does the time slow down? What happens if the speed is the speed of light, ...
Alejandro's user avatar
  • 775
6 votes
1 answer
7k views

Frame of reference of the photon? [duplicate]

In the frame of photon does time stop in the meaning that past future and present all happen together? If we have something with multiple outcomes which is realized viewed from such frame? Are all ...
Anonymous's user avatar
  • 1,047
1 vote
2 answers
3k views

If a photon is exists in 'timeless' state, how can objects around it move? [duplicate]

My understanding is that light does not experience time. In attempting to understand what the universe would be like from the perspective of a photon, the answer I get is that the universe would be ...
user2092608's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

How can a photon oscillate when it experiences no time? [duplicate]

How can light experience change if it is motionless in time?
Steve's user avatar
  • 521
4 votes
1 answer
940 views

How can a photon "stop"? What does its world line look like? [duplicate]

Einstein famously made a thought experiment: what would he see if he sat on a beam of light? His answer was -- it's impossible. Owing to him being a body with mass, he can never ever reach light speed ...
markovchain's user avatar
  • 1,511
2 votes
3 answers
688 views

Is time taken by light to travel any distance 0 or finite? [duplicate]

According to relativity, Light does not experience any time. So it must travel any distance in no time. But, we know that light has finite speed $c$. So it should take finite time.
Aditya Kumar's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why doesn't light travel instantly? [duplicate]

I've read that the faster you travel in space, the slower you travel in time. And when you reach the speed of light (which we won't be able to) time will stand still. So when light travels at the ...
Casper's user avatar
  • 11
-1 votes
3 answers
487 views

Why do we say that light travels at a speed? [duplicate]

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the more speed something has the slower that time passes for it; and presumably when traveling at the speed of light, time stops entirely. So this means ...
Derek Roberts's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
392 views

Why must $v$ be $< c$ in the Lorentz transformations? Do these equations not apply to light? [duplicate]

I was trying to understand how things look from the perspective of light. Looking at the Lorentz transformations, it seems that the universe would contract along the direction of movement into a plane,...
Luke's user avatar
  • 41
1 vote
2 answers
159 views

How can photon have wave properties if they travel at the speed of light? [duplicate]

I am not a physicist so please excuse me if this is a dumb question. As far as I understand Relativity, as observer (in this case a photon) travels at the speed of light, time stops. So how can the ...
Justin's user avatar
  • 753
1 vote
3 answers
930 views

From the photons perspective [duplicate]

Probably been answered but couldn't find the answer. From the perspective of a photon: - For the photon to travel from body A to body B would take 0 secs. - The universe would be one point in "...
Lars B's user avatar
  • 19
0 votes
2 answers
694 views

Do photons travel instantaneously? [duplicate]

Special Relativity tells us - the faster things travel their time is slower relative to a stationary observer. Do massless particles, like photons travelling at the speed of light, “experience” zero ...
Stevex's user avatar
  • 49
0 votes
1 answer
219 views

Why does time stop its flow? [duplicate]

According to the "list verse" time gets to a pause when someone or something travels at the speed of light. But a question still lies in my mind, if time always travels forward and does not stop at ...
Srinath Pulaverthi's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
158 views

Do photons exist from point of view of photon? [duplicate]

If photons are travelling with speed of light, it means that time is stopped for photons and there is no any distance in the Universe for them. So, does it mean that photons do not exist? From the ...
Robotex's user avatar
  • 768
1 vote
1 answer
257 views

What wilI I observe when travelling at almost the speed of light? [duplicate]

If I and a group of friends are travelling at or just below the speed of light - can I see myself, can I see them, or they me? Would we see anything at all?
Max's user avatar
  • 11
-2 votes
1 answer
167 views

attaining the speed of light?? [duplicate]

WHY our time would run slow if we move with the speed close or equal to the speed of light, and is that time dilation restricted to only just '' time' ' or it affects our biological time also (does ...
Kamey Bz's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
141 views

How do photons travel in time? [duplicate]

How can particles such as photons travel in time if they do not have any mass? They are inseparable, so how can you have one but not the other?
Adam's user avatar
  • 15
0 votes
1 answer
99 views

Action at a Distance [duplicate]

Since photons move at $c$, do they experience time or distance? If they don't, doesn't this explain action at a distance? From the point of view of the photons, there is no time, so the action at a ...
devhl's user avatar
  • 23
1 vote
0 answers
98 views

Clocks tick steadily, so why is there no photon time? [duplicate]

Consider a photon bouncing left and right between two mirrors in a photon clock. Seen from inside the clock, the photon bounces at a constant frequency. Time ticks regularly. No matter whether the ...
Nobody's user avatar
  • 111
-1 votes
3 answers
68 views

Special relativity time dilation [duplicate]

According to special relativity time should stop for a particle moving at the speed of light, doesn't that mean that the particle stops moving as well? Then it is not going at the speed of light ...
Nell's user avatar
  • 37
0 votes
1 answer
64 views

Why isn't everything in the same place to photons? [duplicate]

There are lots of versions of this question around, but I don't think that any of the ones that I've reviewed have really answered it, other than to say: We can't know. So, let me try another spin (so ...
jackisquizzical's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
70 views

Discrete structure of moving light in space-time. Does the light actually moving or it is triggered by cells of space-time? [duplicate]

I have an idea that seems for me interesting and exotic. It is not about a traveling with speed of light or observing a frozen light. Rather it is about the nature of light/photons and discrete ...
Վարդան Գրիգորյան's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
51 views

Do photons move from their point of view? [duplicate]

If at light speed time doesnt exist do photons not move from their point of view? If they dont, what would happen if you took a photon and somehow stopped it would it be at the same point at its POV ...
Octavylon's user avatar
-2 votes
4 answers
130 views

Photons confuse me [duplicate]

I'm not entirely sure if my question is valid or not but I'll ask it anyway. So my physics porf. told us the Photons are constantly in motion and they never come at rest and the sub-topics relating to ...
Vishwas Sharma's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
60 views

If time stops at the speed of light, how do photons vibrate in waves [duplicate]

I understand photons travel at light speed because they have no mass therefore they travel at the fastest possible speed, and at the speed of light time stops. If time is frozen at light speed how do ...
zander's user avatar
  • 111
1 vote
0 answers
50 views

If you hit the light barrier what would it look like? [duplicate]

Is it correct to say that if you hit the speed of light you would travel at the same speed as a single image in time would? And if you were to (if possible) travel faster than light, you would ...
Leon mitchell's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
46 views

Time Dilation for a photon [duplicate]

Does a photon experience any time. Since a photon is massless and hence travels at (c) then it should suffer infinite time dilation, and hence shouldn't experience no time?
Shashaank's user avatar
  • 2,827
0 votes
0 answers
42 views

If traveling at speed $c$ in space, we would be resting in the "time" dimension? [duplicate]

Please don't mark as duplicate. I am asking specifically for the 4vektor formula to see at speed c in space, I will get 0 for the time dim. I was reading this question: 4 dimensional interpretation ...
Árpád Szendrei's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
38 views

As our velocity changes shouldn't the span of time taken change [duplicate]

We all know the variation in the velocity of an individual causes different time periods . If we move with the speed of light ,then the time stops for us. Then why does sunlight take time to reach us?
Vinay Upadhyay's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
24 views

Does time slow down for light according to relativity? [duplicate]

According to Einstein's theory of relativity Time slows for a individual who moves at the speed of light and time goes backward if the individual is faster than the speed of light. So , is it that for ...
Srijan's user avatar
  • 735
46 votes
7 answers
10k views

Does a photon in vacuum have a rest frame?

Quite a few of the questions given on this site mention a photon in vacuum having a rest frame such as it having a zero mass in its rest frame. I find this contradictory since photons must travel at ...
Physiks lover's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
993 views

What is the size of the world for a photon?

At relativistic speeds the distances contracts. What is the contraction ratio in the dimensions along the axis of travel between a static observer and a photon passing by?
Manu de Hanoi's user avatar
3 votes
5 answers
586 views

Would a navigator announcing ship velocity whle approaching lightspeed make linear announcements?

Given my admittedly limited understanding of relativity, I believe that as a hypothetical space ship approaches the speed of light at a constant acceleration, what the crew would "see" on ...
JBH's user avatar
  • 158
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

How can photons interact with anything?

I read photons do not age because they move at the speed of light. So when a photon interacts with my eyes, aren't they apart in space-time by the difference of the time in the frame of reference of ...
kutschkem's user avatar
  • 785
6 votes
3 answers
4k views

How do we know that there is more than one photon in the universe?

Excuse this possibly dumb question and correct me - i am not a physicist, but i wondered: A photon is massless and travels with lightspeed, which means for the photon itself, that time stands still ...
iammyip's user avatar
  • 61
2 votes
2 answers
878 views

How can massless gluons interact with each other?

Massless particles, such as photons and gluons, move with the speed of light and consequently experience no time. According to Special Relativity, time stops at the speed of light. As a result, ...
safesphere's user avatar
  • 12.9k
-1 votes
4 answers
2k views

Why Sun light can reach us if Time is dilating? [closed]

I understand that if something is moving with constant speed in respect to an observer, the time of the moving one runs slower, so the more your speed is, the more your time ticks slower. Which ...
Apastrix's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

Can a photon exiting from a gravity well ever reach a frequency of zero / wavelength of $\infty$?

In reading another question about gravity's effects on a photon, I wondered if it were possible for a photon to ever be redshifted to zero wavelength. I know that black holes have a gravity field ...
Kelly S. French's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
1k views

Frame of reference of a photon [duplicate]

I'm curious about the fact that it is impossible to consider a frame of reference where a photon is the reference itself (meaning a frame of reference where this photon can't move). I looked for ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Does a photon travel through space exactly at the speed of light?

In practice, given that in the vacuum of the universe is not perfectly empty, does the photon actually reach exactly c? Is it even possible? If it travels at exactly c, then from the photon ...
benji's user avatar
  • 221
1 vote
3 answers
2k views

Length contraction speed of light

The Special Theory of Relativity tells us that a moving object eg spaceship measures shorter in its direction of motion as its velocity increases. At the speed of light it would have zero length, but ...
jack's user avatar
  • 29
0 votes
3 answers
1k views

If time is relative, how could time pass? [duplicate]

EDIT: I appreciate people who answered below. But it does not answer the question, so I will clarify my questions: -It seems like everyone is saying that time passing is actualized by physical ...
UtterlyConfused's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
544 views

Do photons have absolute motion?

Absolute rest is not possible as the concept of motion is relative. But can we assert that photons have absolute motion as the observers in all the frames of reference would agree to the same value of ...
adnan kamili's user avatar
-2 votes
3 answers
801 views

Is it possible to defy time using speed? [closed]

I have always wondered if we were to travel at past the speed of light (even beyond the current capability) would we be able to slow down time around us? I have asked my teacher at school and he has ...
user27394's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
203 views

Can light exist if it never interacts with anything? [closed]

I've heard some physicists mention that photons do not experience time. From the perspective of the photon, it begins and ends instantaneously. With all the photons shooting out into empty space, it ...
Ben's user avatar
  • 31
1 vote
4 answers
594 views

Does the space collapse to a singularity, for a photon?

Using some elementary concepts, I've arrived at the apparent conclusion that all the space seen from a particle moving at the speed of light always collapses to a singularity at distance 0 from the ...
Costantino's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
453 views

How the world changes from the point of view of a photon [duplicate]

Imagine a universe without time, or more specifically without the Flow of Time. Everything will be a 2D projection and nothing more. No movement, no interaction, and in other words no Change. But our ...
ARK1375's user avatar
  • 129
0 votes
2 answers
1k views

Time dilation at the speed of light

Does a massless particle travelling at the speed on light in a vacuum (c) experience an infinite time dilation effect? i.e. Would the time dilation extend from the perspective of the massless ...
Bernie White's user avatar
-2 votes
2 answers
578 views

Do we feel spacetime only because we are not moving at the speed of light? [closed]

In classical physics, nothing is more fundamental than space and time. But in modern physics, is it true that spacetime are just some "derived" quantities relying on other things more fundamental. ...
velut luna's user avatar
  • 4,034
1 vote
1 answer
321 views

Would the delayed choice quantum eraser work with anything but light?

If, according to relativity, time doesnt pass for a photon and everything is instantaneous (or if the world is so compressed in the direction of travel that it becomes almost 2 dimentional), then the ...
Manu de Hanoi's user avatar

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