Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?
928620
You know why is zigzags right. you say you don't but you know. \nIts chuck norris bending it before he throws it at people
61325
the Flash @ speed of light ;)
960079
You've lost the point of the equation.  Squaring the speed of light will give you the energy released, not an enhanced speed of light.
89599
<You wouldn't see any light if you were traveling at the speed of light when you turned them on,but if you turned the lights on before you took off the light would stay in front of you.
1032236
I agree with a number of the other posts that you should state the question correctly. One doesn't see thunder, but I'm assuming you are talking about the light from the lightning that created the thunder.......yes?\n\nAnyway, with such an assumption, and based on the numbers in your question, you will see the lightning from the northern-most strike before you see the one from the south.\n\nThe train will have moved roughly 0.475 inches when the lightning flash reaches the observer, and therefore this ligtning flash has this much less to travel before reaching the train.\n\nIf you're actually talking about thunder......or....sound, you'd still hear the nothern-most thunder first.
701082
If you are travelling fast I would think the signal would be completely disrupted...:D
8700
no. well, its absolutely impossible to travel at the speed of light, but lets pretend you can so i can actually give you an answer to the question. The speed of light is actually the ultimate speed limit to the universe, nothing can travel faster than light, so although you would expect the light to be going at twice the speed of light (you plus the speed of light)it can't because it is physically impossible for even light to travel faster than the speed of light so it would be going at the same speed of you and not reach any path in front of you.  Of course, if you turned on your headlights before you started moving, the light would always be one step ahead of you.\n\nbut again, this situation couldn't happen anyway since you can't get to the speed of light, and if you want to know why, look at some of my answers to other questions about time travel (which involves velocity distorting time) and shining flashlights and such.
784353
Good question, shows you are thinking.\n\nPresent technology contends that only light, pure energy, can go as fast as the speed of light.\n\nTaking that theory to heart, if a space ship actually achieved the speed of light it would turn into pure energy (light) and cease to exist as a solid object. The test pilot would theoretically commit suicide in an attempt to learn if it was possible.
998287
Well, when I drive the speed of light in my car... \n\nI think the person in front of you would see that they're on, but they wouldn't illuminate anything.
1151404
If the deflection surface has any diffraction or diffusion to it, the light may just be redirected imperfectly. 12kV? Jumpin Gigawatts!
696446
Each drop of rain, or snowflake, carries a very tiny electrical charge as it falls.  When you get a concentrated amount of rainfall or snowfall in a local area with a lot of updraft/downdraft activity, as with a cumulonimbus cloud, whose height can top 60,000 feet, there is a large amount of electrostatic charge that builds up between the cloud and the ground, and also from cloud to cloud.  When the charge is huge enough to overcome the dielectric resistance of the air between, there's an arc, or discharge, of that static electricity, visible as lightning.  The thunder is the sound of that huge spark as it jumps the gap.  Since sound travels only about 760 MPH through air (approx. 1100 ft / sec), while light's speed 186000 MPS is so much faster, the delay in hearing the thunder is a good approximate indicator (in fifths of a mile), of how far away the lightning strike was.
490235
Assuming you are standing still relative to the airplane, and the airplane is going at the exact speed of light... yes you would see it, but only as it colides into you.  if you are asking if you would see if before it hits you, then no.  Due to it's speed, all of the light coming off of it would not be able to outrun the plane.
185936
At ground zero, a significant fraction of the speed of light. However at a short distance it diminishes to the speed of sound.
1020854
HahAHaha.  Listen Shawny, these people seriously do NOT know what they are talking about.  But I do, you're talking about lightening without thunder!  Not lightening with thunder but it's so far away you can't hear it.  There is such a thing as lightening with thunder because it's been happening all over here in my area of Texas.\n\nAnd I don't live out in the country, I'm in good ol' Austin.  There's something mysterious surrounding this lightening, not just because there's no thunder, but because you know the lightening is the driving force of the storm and not the other way around.  If that's true, then this lightening must be coming from SPACE.  That's right I said it.  Lightening caused not by the clouds colliding with cold air but by something going on with the Sun.  Anyways, I KNOW this was coming from space because of this one special bolt of lightening that just rocked the house and I'll never forget it.  \n\nIt came down out of the clouds like an anvil, and when it hit the air it's like the air acted like and insulatoragains the electricity and stopped the bolt from coming down anymore.  Well it was THICK at the trunk and it spread out in every direction along the bottom of the clouds, like a ring of electricity or the roots of a tree, causing lightening far out across horizon as far as I could see.  That was just too much energy for me to believe that it was caused by clouds rubbing together, am I right?  Can I get an AMEN?\n\nAnyways, so you know where this lightening is coming from, but what does this have to do with heat lightening?  Well you remember that Earth has a natural electric field right?  Everything that exists from the ground up has a natural electric charge on it.  When the lightening comes in it's basically pulling electrons off of the Earth and pulling energy in.  When these travel through the plasma the air surrounding the bolt is of a way smaller charge and is repelled; this causes the thunder.\n\nSomething is going on in these storms and in Earth's energy fields that allows this energy to be moved easily and with little resistance.  I believe we'll be seeing more of this lightening in the years ahead, you can count on it.  BWahahHAhAhaaa!!!
1152217
Yes since it would reach it's terminal velocity after a few feet. &  DUE TO THE DRAG IT WOULD NOT ACHIEVE THE SPEED OTHERS are THINKING IT  would ACHIEVE.Given that air is present .
767639
Don't things fall at 32ft/sec.
591715
No. First, matter can't get to the speed of light because it would be infinitly massive and would take an infinite amount of energy to do it so the question starts out with a bad premiss.\n\nHowever, if a plane were traveling at half the speed of light and turned on it's headlights, they would be going the speed of light to him and the speed of light for someone on the ground watching. You see the speed of light is constant for all observers in a non-Newtonian reference frame.