(December 13, 2016 at 8:26 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote:(December 13, 2016 at 3:42 pm)Alex K Wrote: So, yes in a sense taking the limit of v=c as an observer is not a mathematically consistent thing to do and you encounter things like 0*infinity that by themselves aren't meaningful. But you also have to be careful how you define the velocity v - the velocity of photons being c is measured in the time frame of the observer, not of the photon.
Every object is at rest from its own perspective, and to square that with lightspeed always being c leads to the extreme ( and not quite mathematically consistent ) limiting case of time stopping. Then from the photons perspective, it doesn't move but also no time passes, so the speed is 0/0. This tells you that the vantage point of the photon isn't really a mathematically valid reference frame.
"Every object is at rest from its own perspective"
Except the brain of a field theorist which can single-handedly keep the Tylenol industry in business for several decades.
If no time passes, how can light have a speed? It would already be whereever it's going. The very idea of going somewhere implies a time
The time base used to measure light speed is always that of the outside observer, where time passes as usual...
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition