Expert: Steve Nelson - 4/28/2009

Question
Q 1: How the universe would like from the point of view of a  photon?
Q 2: Special theory of relativity says that everything can be measured only relatively and hence it abandons the notion of absoluteness. But in any reference frame the velocity of light remains the same and it has nothing to do with the relative motion of different observers. So why isn't it possible to say like this "velocity of light is always absolute and has the same value"?

Answer
1)  It's moving at the speed of light, so the universe would be totally static as it would appear time had stopped.  2)  It doesn't "abandon the notion of absoluteness," and all observers do measure the same speed of light in a vacuum.  The speed of light can be slowed down in media, and different observes can calculate a different speed of light based on gravitational effects but locally everyone observes the same "absolute" value.