Looking In To a Mirror At The Speed Of Light

[rhinefire]

As I understand this If I am traveling the speed of light holding a mirror in front of my face I would not be able to see anything, correct?

 

[OrphanSlug]

As I understand this If I am traveling the speed of light holding a mirror in front of my face I would not be able to see anything, correct?

Cannot be answered for two reasons.

First, nothing of mass that we know of can move at or faster than the speed of light.

Because of the theory of relativity and associated conclusions, we cannot give infinite energy to a particle of mass to move it at the speed of light. Light itself is composed of photons (particles without mass.) They have momentum so they can interact with matter, but we cannot force enough energy into something of mass to cross that barrier. This is backed up by the tested theory that accelerated electrons became heavier up until the point of the speed of light where it was impossible to force them to go faster. It was then mathematical conclusion that the faster something of mass travels the more massive it gets and the more time slows. At the speed of light then time would stop, and by consequence so would speed. The natural conclusion is nothing of mass can travel faster than the speed of light. Einstein tended to agree.

So all you can really do even by theory is get really really close to that barrier, but with real consequence by these theories.

Second, because of the above all we can do is theorize what the conditions would be like for getting right up to the point of the speed of light holding a mirror.

Up to the point of the speed of light, then we are left with a two constants that must be met to ensure you would see your reflection in the mirror regardless of being at any speed or at complete rest. One, that the distance between yourself and the mirror is at a constant. Two, the speed in which both are traveling is in the exact same direction and also is at a constant. Acceleration and deceleration in these conditions at these theoretical speeds presents physics based calculation problems in a multitude of ways.

Example. If both you and the mirror were going at the speed of sound, then there is no difference in what you would see when compared to being at a stop. It might look very different but the reflection speed is itself unchanged. The same is true getting right up to the point of the speed of light, in theory, as the constants are that speed and that distance between you and the mirror. This is all based on the Theory of Relativity. The rules of physics have to exist in all conditions, in this case the same frames of reference no matter moving at some speed or at a point of rest. The frames of reference are you and the mirror. Assuming neither acceleration or deceleration, momentum changes, directions, resistance, etc. then light (thus reflection) work as usual. Again, light has no mass and is not subject to the same forces that govern say... sound and travel (think the Doppler effect on sound emitting from objects in motion vs. an object at rest.) And since sound is nothing more than a pressure wave through a medium of particles, we have different physics conclusions for dealing with sound in motion vs. light in motion.

You may think that moving faster and faster somehow diminishes what is seen in the mirror, however so long as the distance between your face and the mirror is the same it should not matter how fast both up to the point of the speed of light. It is not very practical to even try this, and even comical to think about what that reflection would look like, by theory we have enough mathematical calculation to determine these conclusions from the Theory of Relativity.

Now, with the compression and collisions of space theories from Quantum Sciences we can have a lot of fun with this subject. But, still nothing of mass actually travels faster than light in this universe... we just compress the confines of this universe to force objects of mass into unrealistic and totally theoretical consequences, including applied speeds for objects of mass over visually measurable speeds.

 

[Chomsky]

As I understand this If I am traveling the speed of light holding a mirror in front of my face I would not be able to see anything, correct?

I believe so.

But I wouldn't worry about this too much.

You're probably not as bad looking as you think!

 

[Riveroaks]

As I understand this If I am traveling the speed of light holding a mirror in front of my face I would not be able to see anything, correct?

According to Einstein's theories/hypotheses/speculations/mysteries/myths, that would be correct.

 

[Visbek]

As I understand this If I am traveling the speed of light holding a mirror in front of my face I would not be able to see anything, correct?

Correct, but not for the reasons you think.

As OrphanSlug pointed out, it is not possible for you to travel at the speed of light. Your entire body would convert into energy. You can't see anything when you don't have any eyes left.

Here's a good one for you, though. Let's say you are standing at point A, with two lasers. One laser is pointing to your left, the other is pointing to your right. The following is happening:

1) The photons fired by the left laser are traveling away from you at the speed of light
2) The photons fired by the right laser are traveling away from you at the speed of light
3) The photons fired by the left laser are traveling away from the photons fired by the right laser at the speed of light

Also: If all the objects are moving at the same speed relative to one another, the inhabitants won't notice any relativistic effects. E.g. if you are on a spaceship that is moving away from Earth at 99.9% of the speed of light, all the objects on that ship will seem perfectly normal to one another. Lights and mirrors will all appear normal to the astronauts on the ship.

 

[Hicup]

I often wondered if we left Earth in some theoretically possible space machine at exactly the speed of light, and travelled ten light years directly away, what we would see is the Earth as it looked the moment we left for the entire ten year trip. Here's the really weird thing though. Would it look as though we were not even moving (Like we were orbiting the Earth ready to begin our trip where everything looks large and close) or how does time dilation and the fact that light is also a wave come into play? Intuitively we would think that the Earth would look large and close as if we took a picture at the moment we left, and until we slowed or stopped would it look small and distant.

Anyone have any ideas?


Tim-

 

[Northern Light]

I would say no, you wouldn't see your reflection, only because in order to move at the speed of light, your body's energy state would be in a completely different form and would probably not resemble solid state matter. In other words, at those speeds, there would be no mirror for you to even look into.

In order to have the physicality to hold up a mirror, you would somehow have to create a relativistic bubble of space around yourself with the properties of (relatively) stationery matter, like a warp bubble. You would then be able to exist as your current state, in static motion, while within a bubble that is traveling at the speed of light.

 

[Visbek]

I often wondered if we left Earth in some theoretically possible space machine at exactly the speed of light, and travelled ten light years directly away, what we would see is the Earth as it looked the moment we left for the entire ten year trip.

Basically, yes.

You'd be encountering the same photons that left Earth at the same time as you.

Here's the really weird thing though. Would it look as though we were not even moving (Like we were orbiting the Earth ready to begin our trip where everything looks large and close) or how does time dilation and the fact that light is also a wave come into play? Intuitively we would think that the Earth would look large and close as if we took a picture at the moment we left, and until we slowed or stopped would it look small and distant.

Since you'll be looking at the same photons no matter how far away you are, it will look the same.

It won't look "as large" because you're seeing fewer photons as you travel further away.

Another way to put it is: Photons do not travel through time. From the perspective of a photon, its own clock never ticks. A photon created by the Big Bang is still, in a sense, at the instant of its creation. It also doesn't experience distance.

Have fun with THAT one.

 

[Nilly]

Cannot be answered for two reasons.

First, nothing of mass that we know of can move at or faster than the speed of light.

Because of the theory of relativity and associated conclusions, we cannot give infinite energy to a particle of mass to move it at the speed of light. Light itself is composed of photons (particles without mass.) They have momentum so they can interact with matter, but we cannot force enough energy into something of mass to cross that barrier. This is backed up by the tested theory that accelerated electrons became heavier up until the point of the speed of light where it was impossible to force them to go faster. It was then mathematical conclusion that the faster something of mass travels the more massive it gets and the more time slows. At the speed of light then time would stop, and by consequence so would speed. The natural conclusion is nothing of mass can travel faster than the speed of light. Einstein tended to agree.

So all you can really do even by theory is get really really close to that barrier, but with real consequence by these theories.

Second, because of the above all we can do is theorize what the conditions would be like for getting right up to the point of the speed of light holding a mirror.

Up to the point of the speed of light, then we are left with a two constants that must be met to ensure you would see your reflection in the mirror regardless of being at any speed or at complete rest. One, that the distance between yourself and the mirror is at a constant. Two, the speed in which both are traveling is in the exact same direction and also is at a constant. Acceleration and deceleration in these conditions at these theoretical speeds presents physics based calculation problems in a multitude of ways.

Example. If both you and the mirror were going at the speed of sound, then there is no difference in what you would see when compared to being at a stop. It might look very different but the reflection speed is itself unchanged. The same is true getting right up to the point of the speed of light, in theory, as the constants are that speed and that distance between you and the mirror. This is all based on the Theory of Relativity. The rules of physics have to exist in all conditions, in this case the same frames of reference no matter moving at some speed or at a point of rest. The frames of reference are you and the mirror. Assuming neither acceleration or deceleration, momentum changes, directions, resistance, etc. then light (thus reflection) work as usual. Again, light has no mass and is not subject to the same forces that govern say... sound and travel (think the Doppler effect on sound emitting from objects in motion vs. an object at rest.) And since sound is nothing more than a pressure wave through a medium of particles, we have different physics conclusions for dealing with sound in motion vs. light in motion.

You may think that moving faster and faster somehow diminishes what is seen in the mirror, however so long as the distance between your face and the mirror is the same it should not matter how fast both up to the point of the speed of light. It is not very practical to even try this, and even comical to think about what that reflection would look like, by theory we have enough mathematical calculation to determine these conclusions from the Theory of Relativity.

Now, with the compression and collisions of space theories from Quantum Sciences we can have a lot of fun with this subject. But, still nothing of mass actually travels faster than light in this universe... we just compress the confines of this universe to force objects of mass into unrealistic and totally theoretical consequences, including applied speeds for objects of mass over visually measurable speeds.

Nitpicking here because the rest of your post is virtually spot on but light is subject to the doppler effect. Sound might just be a pressure wave through a medium of particles but light is also just a wave that is subject to similar variations in frequency.

 

[Dragonfly]

Wait... you're moving at the speed of light AND holding the mirror, that means the mirror is moving at the same relative speed you are.

Therefore it should be exactly like holding a mirror standing still, or in a car, or in an airplane.

The mirror is not moving at all relative to you, regardless of speed.

You'd see yourself just fine.

 

[MoSurveyor]

Theoretically (simply as a thought exercise) if you could move at the speed of light time would stop. You only "see" whatever you saw just before you hit light speed - though you really wouldn't be seeing at all. Seeing, or any kind of sensing, requires time to happen.

For the mirror, the photons that are at your position will move forward at the speed of light - but since you and the mirror are also moving at the speed of light the photons from you will never reach the mirror. In fact, they will never leave you.

Looking behind you yields the same result. The photons from behind you can't "catch up" to you, so all you will "see" is what you last saw before hitting light speed.

There would be some change to the pattern of photons in your frame because objects outside your frame would, no doubt, knock them out of your frame but you wouldn't sense the change until after you slowed below light speed, when time would once again start ticking.

 

[Natan]

First, nothing of mass that we know of can move at or faster than the speed of light.

Wrong, neutrinos allegedly have mass and have yet to be demonstrated to fly at a speed lower than light.

Since it is established that neutrinos possess mass, the speed of neutrinos should be slightly smaller than the speed of light in accordance with special relativity. Existing measurements provided upper limits for deviations of approximately 10−9, or a few parts per billion. Within the margin of error this is consistent with no deviation at all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measurements_of_neutrino_speed

 

[Tim the plumber]

As I understand this If I am traveling the speed of light holding a mirror in front of my face I would not be able to see anything, correct?

This is my understanding which may well be drivel but here goes;

If you are going at the speed of light time has stopped for you so you would not see anything.

But since the last instant which did happen for you would stretch on for ever you would see you face in the mirror. This is because the light that left your face hit the mirror and bounced back just as normal as far as you could tell.

This is one of the weird things that relitivity explains. It being impossible to measure how fast you are going in relation to the actual universe. That is it "should" be easy to measure the speed of light going one way and the speed of it coming back and compare them. The result of any such experiment is that they are going at exactly the same speed. This is baffling untill you are forced to get you head around the idea that time is variable.

That's as far as I get.... and I am baffled by it....

 

[iangb]

Dragonfly had it right. If the mirror is stationary relative to you then it doesn't matter how fast you and the mirror are going relative to anything else - you will still be able to see your reflection.

Two addendums to this:

1) Although *you* would be able to see your reflection, anyone who is moving at the speed of light relative to you (or from their point of view, anyone who is stationary while you and the mirror move past at the speed of light) would *not* be able to see their reflection in the mirror. Or yours, come to that.

2) As an interesting quirk of quantum physics, a mirror moving at relativistic speeds will glow as it slices pairs of virtual photons apart and prevents them from annihilating. However, I suspect this effect would only be observable if you and your mirror were to constantly accelerate and decelerate, since it needs to have 'empty space' as a frame of reference, and that's not possible without a reference point (which 'empty space' does not have!)

 

[Deuce]

As I understand this If I am traveling the speed of light holding a mirror in front of my face I would not be able to see anything, correct?

No, not correct.

 

[Deuce]

According to Einstein's theories/hypotheses/speculations/mysteries/myths, that would be correct.

Nope.

Edit oh hey there's another page.

 

[azgreg]

 

[Helix]

I believe so.

But I wouldn't worry about this too much.

You're probably not as bad looking as you think!

but you'd approach infinite mass, which might make you feel fat. also, you'd probably get fired for years of no call / no show unless your vacation package seriously kicks ass.