4 ms·
Based on relativity photons do not experience time. They “hit” something the instant they are created - even if we perceive them to have existed for billions of
by dstroot 8y ago
Based on relativity photons do not experience time. They “hit” something the instant they are created - even if we perceive them to have existed for billions of (light) years.
- liberte82 8y agoFrom the perspective of a photon, everything in the universe is happening here and now.
- doubledad222 8y agoIs this REALLY accepted as true? Photons are fast, but they're not instantaneous. They still take millions of years to travel between galaxies. For something to be truely timeless, I'd expect it to be able to teleport. Is this incorrect?
- inteleng 8y agoIn the frame of reference of the photon, the moment it is created and the moment it is destroyed are one and the same.
- cuspycode 8y agoAssume a really fast rocket is traveling from galaxy A to galaxy B. Due to relativistic length contraction, the distance between the galaxies is less as seen by the rocket than it is for a stationary observer in either galaxy. So the travel time from the perspective of the rocket (the "proper time" of the rocket) is less than the travel time measured by a stationary observer. And when you work out the math, the rocket's proper time approaches zero in the limit as the speed of the rocket approaches light speed.
- whatshisface 8y agoThe speed of light is constant, which means that there is no reference frame where a photon is stationary. If you are "riding along" with a train it appears stationary so we take that as being the reference frame of the train. By the above it's clear that there is no reference frame of a photon I.E. there are no true statements about what it's "like" for photons.