Mind-Bending Puzzles

I know one.

You see three light switches. But one does turn on the lights in the other room. You know which light switch but how?
 
Levonian said:
Yep—you got it. The last sentence of your reply is the key to the explanation. The passengers on the Concorde can’t hear the engines because the vehicle is traveling faster than the speed of sound. The Concorde is leaving it’s own sound behind it, and the noise from the engines can‘t catch up to the airplane. The same thing would happen with light, as Einstein pointed out. The easiest way to picture this is with a spaceship which emits pulses of light. Pretend you are looking out into deep space with a telescope. A spaceship is approaching you at a speed less than the speed of light. The spaceship emits 3 pulses of light at one minute intervals. We’ll call them pulse 1, pulse 2, and pulse 3. First, you see pulse 1. A minute later, you see pulse 2. Pulse 2 is larger and brighter than pulse 1 because the spaceship is closer to you—just like the headlights of an approaching car get larger and brighter as the car moves closer to you. A minute later, you see pulse 3, and it is larger and brighter than pulse 2. But if the spaceship is traveling faster than the speed of light, you will see the pulses in reverse order. After the spaceship emits pulse 1, it moves ahead of the pulse, leaving the pulse behind it. When it emits pulse 2, it moves ahead of it also. Pulse 1 is now behind pulse 2. When the spaceship emits pulse 3, the same thing happens, and now pulse 3 is in front, pulse 2 is behind it, and pulse 1 is behind pulse 2. So you will see pulse 3 first, then pulse 2, and then pulse 1. Just as the Concorde is leaving it’s own sound behind it, the spaceship is leaving it’s own light behind it.

Well, does anybody want more, or should we give this thread a rest?
Click to expand...
Exactly what happens when you watch Star Trek or Star Wars! When the ships go into hyperspace or warp speed, they leave a line behind them. That's just a visual clue/hint to show you what you would actually see if you were looking out the back window of those ships.

Yes, give us more! MORE! MORE! *chanting* MORE!
 
Back
Top