If you are traveling at x speed the time will pass for you slower than to an observer that is relatively stopped. That's all just because a photon released at the x speed can't travel faster than the c limit. What happens if you have two bodies, A and B moving towards each other. If A releases a light beam, and B measures it (the speed of the photons), the speed measured is still the same?

Raegan Bray

Raegan Bray

Answered question

2022-07-14

If you are traveling at x speed the time will pass for you slower than to an observer that is relatively stopped. That's all just because a photon released at the x speed can't travel faster than the c limit.
What happens if you have two bodies, A and B moving towards each other. If A releases a light beam, and B measures it (the speed of the photons), the speed measured is still the same? The only difference will be the wave length? And if we have the opposite case, A and B are moving away from each other, we get the red shift, but the speed measured will be still the same?

Answer & Explanation

Jamarion Roth

Jamarion Roth

Beginner2022-07-15Added 13 answers

The speed of light will be the same, yes. This is the fundamental tenet of special relativity - that all inertial observers see the same laws of physics, including universal constants like the speed of light.
And yes, the wavelength πœ† will change. The frequency 𝜈 will also change, since after all we still must have
Ξ» Ξ½ = c .
on2t1inf8b

on2t1inf8b

Beginner2022-07-16Added 4 answers

Yes, every observer who makes a local measurement of the speed of light will get the same result, i.e. 𝑐, regardless of where the light came from.
I've used the word local because in general relativity the speed of light can differ from 𝑐 if it's not measured at your location. The most famous example of this is probably the fact that light slows down to a halt as it approaches the event horizon of a black hole. However even in general relativity a local measurement always returns the value 𝑐.

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