Relativity Question (Physics) 4
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Relativity Question (Physics) 4

[From: ] [author: ] [Date: 11-05-10] [Hit: ]
if anything, the one thing you must come away with in physics is that the speed of light in a vacuum is the same everywhere... no matter what the source and observer are, or what they are doing.......
Person A is standing in a field, and person B is riding in a car that is moving with velocity (v). The person in the car shines a flashlight in the direction he or she is moving. Question: What speed of light will each person measure?

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OK, if anything, the one thing you must come away with in physics is that the speed of light in a vacuum is the same everywhere... no matter what the source and observer are, or what they are doing.

So A could be whizzing around Saturn and still pick up the speed of light c ~ 300,000,000 mps and B could be at the North Pole and measure c ~ 300E6 mps as well.

That's the important physical observation that lead to the special theory of relativity. The STOR was published to explain how c is c is c no matter what. And the answer was that space and time adjusted to keep c at c. Space and time are variable, the speed of light is not.

So each person will measure the same speed, no matter what. And that's c (discounting the slight variation due to air as a medium).

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The speed of light is the same in all inertial reference frames therefore they will both see the light travelling at about 3x10^8 m/s.
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