Apparent Motion at the Speed of Light (1 Viewer)

[hyparzero]

We all know that it is physically impossible for anything to travel at the speed of light, let alone, faster than the speed of light. But, what about apparent motion?

Apparent motion seems to be a very interesting subject, however its very hard to describe in words. (Coz I'm a dumbass)

The way to describe it, is that if I have a long row of light bulbs (ie: very long)
and the 1st light bulb is made to turn on, followed by the second, and the third, if the off to on in succession is sufficient, the apparent motion of the light travelling down the long row of lightbulbs can be made faster than the speed of light.

What do you people think of this?

 

[gordo]

if it was going at the speed of light then you wouldn't see it cause it would be too fast and so nothing would be apparent

 

[Tuna]

You didn't answer his question, nor am I. However, your thought experiment is contradictory since you want to prove the theory is wrong. C is constant in every frame of reference.

 

[gordo]

i believe his question was.. "What do you people think of this?"
How did I fail to answer that exactly?

You, on the other hand; the concept in his question went straight over your head.

 

[milton]

there is nothing wrong with apparent motion travelling at the speed of light.

an example- a pulsar is like a lighthouse that emits x-rays and gamma rays and they are VERY far away- they might spin say once per second and so the beam of radiation may appear to sweep the universe at many thousands times the speed of light.

another example is the shadow of a bird flying- when the ground below is flat- the shadow travels at the same speed as the bird but when it flies over a wall- the shadow may appear to move very fast- it may even 'move' faster than sppeed of light- and there is nothing wrong with that

in these cases- nothing physical is moving, not even information can be transmitted in this way- so it doesnt violate SR

 

[acullen]

another example is the shadow of a bird flying- when the ground below is flat- the shadow travels at the same speed as the bird but when it flies over a wall- the shadow may appear to move very fast- it may even 'move' faster than sppeed of light- and there is nothing wrong with that

How can a shadow move faster than the speed of light when the very existance of it is the lack of light?

And the shadow on the ground does move slightly faster than the bird at all angles apart from perpendicular from the ground. This is due to both having equal angular displacement, but the ground obviously being further from the source of light (the sun).