Yes. As you get further back, each person sees an earlier version of the door.
Nonsense. Just because there's light all around the door means nothing. We only see the door because of the light coming directly from the door (reflection).Except that the light is not coming from the door (of course light will be reflected but that is true of all surfaces to varying degrees throughout the room). Light is all around the door, if we are talking about in a normal room or even outdoors with natural lighting BUT best to stick with one scenario for now.
Correct.Take around 10 people place them 3 metres from each other each going further from the door and the first is of course 3 meters from the door.[/FONT][/B][/I]
You are saying the first person is seeing the door as it was 10 ns ago and then each additional person add another 10 ns ?
So what? In the example above the door is the "source" of the light by which we see it.So in all i wrote the fact that the sun IS the source of light has escaped you.
Why?
Except that the light is not coming from the door (of course light will be reflected but that is true of all surfaces to varying degrees throughout the room).
That's wrong. You always see what was there. Even if it was just nanoseconds ago. Not to mention the time it takes for your brain to process the information. You can't see in real-time.I'm saying that in the case of seeing, light shows us what's THERE, not what WAS there or isn't there.
It was their present when the light left there, not anymore when you reaches you.But you may object: to someone next to the star the star is NOT in the past as we see it. True..It is not in OUR past. It is in THEIR present. That's because there is a REAL difference in spacetime between where the star actually is and where we are.
That's my proposition at least..
If i look up and see a star explode i am seeing that in real time.
What if the light only travels (or waht we perceive to be traveling) during the "on-off phase"?
...if the light reaches as far as it can go, can we then deem it to be constant? For as long as it reamins on, of course.
Just to clarify what you are asking here.
Imagine a person with a flashlight 1 light year away.
Assuming no other sources of light and according to you:
How long will it take from the moment he turns it on to the time you see the light from the flashlight?
How long from the moment he turns it off to the time you see the light go out?
John99:
Explain to me your understanding of the process by which we see the door. Please list the requirements for us to see the door, and the time sequence of all relevant events up to the point where the door is perceived by a person standing 3 metres away.
Thanks.
That is not what i am asking.
The point of contention, yes.
Cool, sounds like you're getting closer to understanding this. The people looking at the door scenario is very similar to the people on planets watching the sun scenario, just on a larger scale. Scale it up even further and you have people watching stars, seeing the light that left them years (or decades, or centuries) ago.
Just to clarify what you are asking here.
Imagine a person with a flashlight 1 light year away.
Assuming no other sources of light and according to you:
How long will it take from the moment he turns it on to the time you see the light from the flashlight?
How long from the moment he turns it off to the time you see the light go out?
If a light beam reaches as far as it can go or hits another object is the light still traveling? My answer was no.
You already said it was one light year away.
The time is dependnat on the environment.
My question in the other post dealt mainly with:
If a light beam reaches as far as it can go or hits another object is the light still traveling? My answer was no. The light from source to end is somewhat like a string.
There are two people here that obviously aren't even aware that it takes about 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach the Earth. John, if the Sun exploded this very moment, it would take 8 minutes for the flash from that explosion to reach your eyes. (Assuming you are on the right side of the planet it see it - meaning that it's daytime where you are when it happened.)
I'm pretty sure they've been teaching that little fact in school for decades!
To put it very simply, when a bunch of photons hit an object, some of them bounce off it. If we happen to be looking at that object, some of them end up in our eyes. If photons didn't behave in this way then we wouldn't be able to see the moon, and flashlights would be useless for seeing in the dark.