What is the Relative Speed of Photon 1 passing Photon 2 if both photons are passing going in opposite directions in a...

What is the Relative Speed of Photon 1 passing Photon 2 if both photons are passing going in opposite directions in a Vacuum? Would the answer be C or 2C?
Basically how fast would Photon 2 be going in the perspective of photon 1

0, from the perspective of a photon, time doesn't exist

Lorentz

Photon's don't have reference frames

learn physics 101 please

not sure of the plausibility of this scenario but 2C is the easiest answer to the question.

>photon 1 moving at (fuck)m/s in+x direction in vac
>photon 2 moving at (fuck)m/s in -x direction in vac

now, *relative to photon 2*

>the relative motion of photon 2 to photon 2 is 0m/s (stationary) and the relative motion of photon 1 to photon 2 would make it appear as photon 2 is moving away from photon 1 twice as fast.

>2C is the easiest answer to the question

yeah except that its WRONG you fukin dumb ass lol

not OP, but the correct it. i thought photons move at C so in this case "2C" 'd only make sense.

*then correct it

wow bro
through superior intellect ("sense", as you put it) and mathematics
you have proved einstien wrong

>nothing can surpass C
so the relative speed would still be a C
despite them both moving with C towards eachother?

welcome to relativity

The speed is always c, no matter where you stand. Second basic principle of Special Relativity. Photon 1 would measure c as the speed for photon 2, photon 2 would measure c for photon 1. From an observer's standpoint both would move with c.
I can do the maths on it if someone really wants to know, would take a while cuz I have to work now though.

regardless, 2C would make more sense though from a mechanical standpoint, but oh well

if the thread is still alive when you finish, then please do!

>2C would make more sense though from a mechanical standpoint
No it would not. Your assumption that you can just add velocities linearly when changing base is what's wrong. I mean come on, if you're actually wondering about that you could read a little bit about it.

Like, literally the wikipedia article will give you the proper way to do this. That's like 15 mn to go through at worst.
Yes it's surprising and counter-intuitive. But it's also special relativity 101.

>I can do the maths on it if someone really wants to know
lmao no you can't

No observer can move at the speed of light so the question is pointless.

>regardless, 2C would make more sense though from a mechanical standpoint, but oh well
not if its COMPLETELY WRONG

thats like saying, "if i throw a ball in the air, it makes more sense if it keeps going higher and higher" because we cant be bothered to calculate gravity

>regardless, 2C would make more sense though from a mechanical standpoint, but oh well

Spoken like a true engineer.

A reference frame moving at c has no well defined qualities, it makes no sense to consider them.

Special relativity: the speed of a photon is C in all reference frames. So the answer is c. Classical mechanics is just that: 'classical'. I.e. what we observe at low, non relativistic speeds.

Will the stationary observer see the distance between the two photons change as if they had relative speed of 2c or what?

Yes, relative speed = (u+v)/(1+uv/c^2) and closing speed = u+v. When the photons start at a distance of two light seconds they will meet in one second.

length contracts to 0 in the direction of motion and delta(t)=0. seems pretty well defined to me. speed would be indeterminate though unless you fix dividing by 0

You cannot use the photon frame to observe speed because 0/0 is not defined.

Graduate high school first please.

All your gamma factors become undefined so you've got a pretty big problem there

>unless you fix dividing by 0
That's obviously not going to happen

from the perspective of a massless particle, time is nonexistent. therefore it does not makes sense to ask about relative speed in this manner