[ExI] speed of light at the speed of light

Gordon gts_2000 at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 22 11:29:32 UTC 2013


I am in a spaceship accelerating away from earth and approaching the speed of light. I have a flashlight. My instruments tell me that the light emitted from my flashlight travels at c. This is true no matter whether I shine it forward in the direction of my travel or backward toward the rear of the ship. 

I am accelerating away from earth such that my ship's velocity relative to earth compared to c is halved in each time period. For example at time t, my ship is travelling at 90% of c. At t2, my ship is travelling at 95% of c. At t3, my ship is travelling at 97.5% of c, and so on for an infinite amount of time as I approach c. I think my flashlight will forever work normally from my point of view.

I understand it is problematic to speak of massive objects actually travelling *at* c, but it seems me that *in the limit* as I approach c (as above), c is still a constant in my frame of reference. And how is this any different from saying that if my ship is travelling at c, the light from my flashlight still travels in my direction of travel at c relative to my flashlight?

Am I missing anything here? This is not my area of expertise and I have some friends in another forum who think I am crazy. 

Gordon  
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