Originally posted by chesstanc
Unlike sound waves, photons of light travel at the speed of light and are affected by the speed of the object that they leave from so just like if you threw an egg at 5mph from a car going 40mph the egg would go 45 mph, if you turned on your lights in that car then the light would go the speed of light relative to you. Sound waves on the other hand always go at a constant speed in a given medium. That's why sonic booms are possible.

photons of light...are affected by the speed of the object that they leave from

Not true.

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
[b]photons of light...are affected by the speed of the object that they leave from

Not true.[/b]

Actually true. If you have, say, a laser, shooting out the front of a space craft going close to C causes the laser light to go up frequency in a doppler shift so if it starts out green color it may end up at the blue end of the spectrum or even UV, its a real effect. The photons still are going at C.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Actually true. If you have, say, a laser, shooting out the front of a space craft going close to C causes the laser light to go up frequency in a doppler shift so if it starts out green color it may end up at the blue end of the spectrum or even UV, its a real effect. The photons still are going at C.

Oops. That's true. However the speed of the photons is not affected by...