If time stands still at the speed of light why does it take 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach the earth?

Answer 1

According to relativity theory: from an observer's viewpoint it takes about 8 minutes. From the light's viewpoint it takes no time at all. (That's pushing the theory to the limit of course.)There's a lot of detailed stuff below, but that's basically the answer. Very Basic Answer:Because the time dilation explained by relativity affects the object (or light) traveling at relativistic speeds, and NOT observers watching the object (or light) go by. A Little More Information:Here is the reason this is so difficult to grasp. Time is NOT a universal constant. In our everyday experience of the world, it is clear that when a full day goes by for me, a full day will go by for you, no matter where you are on earth, and no matter what the clock time is that we each use to start measuring the day. We have an intuitive sense that time itself passes for me just as it passes for you or anyone anywhere in the world, and this would also be basically true for anyone living on a colony on any of our solar system's planets. It might take hours for a radio message to go from earth to the colony, but we understand that the passage and experience of time for the other party is the same as ours.

It makes perfect sense that we would believe that time is universally constant, because we do not have relativistic experiences that tell us otherwise, and because to us time seems to be so regular and so easily and consistently measured. But here is the big secret: Time is not a universal constant. It does not pass the same way for all locations and for all reference frames no matter what. Einstein theorized this and it has been supported many times in many ways. But you have to be dealing with relativistic velocities (velocities that are significant proportions of the speed of light) in order for the differences in time to be noticeable.

Now, we cannot accelerate to the speed of light. But if we are accelerating relative to our starting point, the closer we get to the speed of light the greater the relativistic affect on time. Light itself is NOT instantaneous; as far as we know from classical physics nothing propagates through space instantaneously. Maybe Quantum Theory allows for such things. Light takes 8 minutes to reach earth from the sun if the time is measured from earth. If you could hitch a ride on one of the photons coming from the sun, (you cannot, of course) first you would get a big shock when the photon hits the sand at your favorite beach. If you survive, YOU would claim that the trip was instantaneous. For YOU (not for observers on earth) time would NOT have passed during the trip from the sun. Yes, it seems impossible. But this is one of the consequences of Einstein's theories of relativity. There is another example of the time distortion idea involving black holes in the discussion area.

Answer 2

the sun is far away!!!!!!

The sun's energy travels to us as electromagnetic radiation. This travels at the speeed of light, because light is a form of electromagnetic radiation.

We are 93,000,000 miles from the sun, and using the speed of light it takes 8 min. for the light to reach us from the sun.

Answer 3

I assume you mean the light that comes from the Sun. Light moves at a certain speed (300,000 kilometers per second); if you divide the distance to the Sun by this speed, you'll get the time it takes, in seconds.

Answer 4

Time dilation at the speed of light occurs from the perspective of the light itself, not external observers. While light doesn't experience time, it still takes time for light to travel from the Sun to Earth because distance must be covered in the physical world. The 8-minute delay is due to the vast distance of 93 million miles between the two celestial bodies.

Answer 5

Yes. The Sun is in constant motion around the galactic center of mass.