Speed of light seen by a moving observer

  • #1
Speady
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How can the speed of light remain the same for an observer while the duration of a light beam is shorter if you move towards the light, and longer if you move with the light? The light beam remains the same length.
 
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  • #2
Speady said:
The light beam remains the same length.

Does it? Observer moves.
 
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  • #3
So what? A ray of light is not affected by an observer, right?
 
  • #4
Speady said:
The light beam remains the same length.
No it doesn't. Consider a light beam of length ##L## in some frame ##S##. The front has coordinates ##x=ct## and the back has ##x=ct-L##. In another frame ##S'## we get (from plugging ##x=ct-L## into the Lorentz transforms) that ##x'=\gamma(c-v)t-\gamma L## and ##t'=\gamma(1-\frac vc)t+\frac{v}{c^2}L##. We can eliminate ##t## to get ##x'=ct'-\gamma(1+\frac vc)L##. It's then trivial to observe that the primed frame sees the front of the beam at ##x'=ct'## and hence that the length of the beam in this frame is ##\gamma(1+\frac vc)L##, not ##L##.
Speady said:
So what? A ray of light is not affected by an observer, right?
The distance you call the length depends on what measurement you choose to call length. The two frames are not actually measuring the same thing when they both measure what they call the length of the beam.
 
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  • #5
Ibix said:
the length of the beam in this frame is ##\gamma(1+\frac vc)L##, not ##L##.
Note that ##\gamma(1+\frac vc)## is the relativistic Doppler factor in disguise, as of course it must be.
 
  • #6
We determine the length of the light beam by transmitting it for a seconds. The length is then a x c km. The length then no longer needs to be measured, but can be used as an unchanging datum.
 
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  • #7
Speady said:
We determine the length of the light beam by transmitting it for a seconds. The length is then a x c km. The length then no longer needs to be measured, but can be used as an unchanging datum.
Other frames do not agree that the value you call ##a## is the duration of emission, due to time dilation. Nor do they think that the emitter was stationary, which you implicitly assume. Thus they calculate a different length using (a slight generalisation of) your formula.

You are calculating the length of the beam in the rest frame of the emitter.
 
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  • #8
A light beam does not become shorter or longer when I start moving. I can then simply record the time during which that light beam passes me. I divide the known length by the different durations that I measure while I move. Dividing length and duration always gives a different relative speed between me and the light beam.
 
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  • #9
It's true that the speed of light cannot be invariant if you insist on classical notions of space, time and length.

The point of Special Relativity is that it replaces classical space and time with a single four dimensional spacetime.
 
  • #10
If you replace classical time and space with something else, then you can no longer speak of speed. Speed is defined as length divided by duration. If "length" and "duration" no longer apply, then also invent something else for "speed", but do not call it speed anymore.
 
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  • #11
Speady said:
A light beam does not become shorter or longer when I start moving.
Your definition of its length changes, however, so the value of what you call length changes.
Speady said:
Dividing length and duration always gives a different relative speed between me and the light beam.
You are aware (I know you are because I've told you on earlier threads) that the speed of light from moving sources has been measured and it is always the same. So your conclusion is inconsistent with reality.
 
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  • #12
Ibix said:
the speed of light from moving sources has been measured
I think this is not correct. A fixed setup has always been used for measurement.
 
  • #14
Speady said:
If you replace classical time and space with something else, then you can no longer speak of speed. Speed is defined as length divided by duration. If "length" and "duration" no longer apply, then also invent something else for "speed", but do not call it speed anymore.
We can call it four-velocity!
 
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  • #16
Speady said:
We determine the length of the light beam by transmitting it for a seconds. The length is then a x c km. The length then no longer needs to be measured, but can be used as an unchanging datum.
The important quantity is not the length of the light beam, but the length of the optical path.

When you calculate the speed of a bus you do not take the length of the bus and divide by the travel time. You take the length of the bus’s path and divide by the travel time.
 
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  • #17
Speady said:
Ibix said:
the speed of light from moving sources has been measured
I think this is not correct. A fixed setup has always been used for measurement.
The speed of light from moving sources has indeed been measured. For a collection of more than a dozen such experiments, see section 3.3 here:

https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/experiments.html
 
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  • #18
Speady said:
I think this is not correct. A fixed setup has always been used for measurement.
Every position reported by every GPS receiver ever….
Every astronomical observation of light emitted or reflected by anything not on earth….
Every use of radar to track moving objects…
 
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  • #19
Dale said:
The important quantity is not the length of the light beam, but the length of the optical path.

When you calculate the speed of a bus you do not take the length of the bus and divide by the travel time. You take the length of the bus’s path and divide by the travel time.
If you know the length of the bus you can divide by the time it takes to pass you to get its speed. That bit is fine - a bit back-to-front, but it works. @Speady's problem is that he doesn't acknowledge that he needs to recalculate the length of the light beam when he changes frame. That means he's using a Newtonian model and (unsurprisingly) having trouble reconciling it with an invariant speed of light.

As always, the problem is not with relativity but with trying to hammer bits of relativity and bits of Newton together into a mess that owes more to Frankenstein than Einstein.
 
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  • #20
Nugatory said:
Every position reported by every GPS receiver ever….
Every astronomical observation of light emitted or reflected by anything not on earth….
Every use of radar to track moving objects…
Yeah, but other than that....
 
  • #21
Vanadium 50 said:
Yeah, but other than that....
What have the Romans ever done for us?

 
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  • #22
L Drago said:
That is the main function of general relativity by Einstein which describes universe as 4D where 3D space and 1D time. Space time fabric. The more the mass, the more the curvature in space time and the more the gravity and slower the time. That's also the reason time nearly stops near singularlity of black hole.
Please note that I don't mean to be rude. I am giving my opinion politely.
You're not being rude at all. You are, however posting imprecise statements, which you have probably picked up from popular science sources.

In particular, you are confusing the singularity.of a black hole (which is outside GR's mathematical model), with the event horizon. In any case, time does not stop at the event horizon. That is something of a popular science myth.
 
  • #23
L Drago said:
I told nearly stopped not entirely stopped. Because of the immense space time curvature.
L Drago, please confine discussion of what you need to learn about black holes to the other thread in which that is already taking place. I understand that you are a seventh grader, so it's perfectly fine that you still have a lot to learn about black holes. But since that is the case, you should not be making statements about them, particularly not in other people's threads which are not even on the topic of black holes. Please take the time to learn more first. In that other thread you are getting plenty of good information to help you do that.

For the record, your statement quoted above is not correct.
 
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  • #24
L Drago said:
I told nearly stopped not entirely stopped. Because of the immense space time curvature.
Time doesn't nearly stop. Moreover, the curvature depends on the mass of the black hole. Extremely massive black holes have less curvature at the event horizon.
 
  • #25
I am closing this thread so that discussion about black holes will be moved to the other thread in which @L Drago is already engaged in such a discussion.
 
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