Could Headlights Actually Work at the Speed of Light?

Here is a bit more on the S O L from wikipedia:

The speed at which light propagates through transparent materials, such as glass or air, is less than c; similarly, the speed of radio waves in wire cables is slower than c. The ratio between c and the speed v at which light travels in a material is called the refractive indexn of the material (n = c / v). For example, for visible light the refractive index of glass is typically around 1.5, meaning that light in glass travels at c / 1.5 ≈ 200000 km/s; the refractive index of air for visible light is about 1.0003, so the speed of light in air is about299700 km/s (about 90 km/s slower than c).

One of the commenters had a comical statement:

turning on headlights at light speed? ain’t nobody got time for that

We hope you like the video and feel free to comment with your ideas!  Vsauce has had some fun scientific videos so stay on the lookout for more updates.



10 Comments

  1. Brian Sandy said:

    at that speed, a ship would be destroyed by hitting space rock the size of a pea. better figure that problem out before going that fast…

  2. William Walker said:

    Why am I always forced to disagree with something.
    Exactly why wouldn’t an object or person traveling, at say, twice the speed of light be exactly two seconds older when it got two light seconds away.
    Perspective and ability to observe something changes drastically based on the distance between moving and stationary objects.

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