Picture

I dunno…let’s look at this one.

@cyan:

What is a picture? like the kind a camera takes, not the ones you paint. Is it an actual moment in time, an array of light or something else?

if it’s a digital camera, a picture is information (1’s and 0’s) stored on a memory card. If it’s a film camera, the picture is information (patterns of emulsion) stored on film.

Another interesting question: can a camera ever take a picture of “the present”?

No, it cannot.

THe light reflecting off the item being photographed has to travel at least SOME distance to reach the film or the optical reader or whatever is capturing the image.  Light is fast, but it is not instant.  The the light that is being recorded as the image was reflected from the object being imaged at some time BEFORE the instant the image is obtained.

Photographing the Earth from high orbit you get an image that is .001 seconds in the past.
Photographic a distant mountain range would be .0001 seconds in the past
etc.

@Jermofoot:

I dunno…let’s look at this one.

Natty dread rides again. Jah, rastafari!

And what are we doing now? Playing TPBEM(trivial pursuit by e-mail)?

Well, ok. While we’re on the subject of distance and time related to pictures. If you took a picture of the 2nd nearest star to earth, how old is the image and what is it’s name?

Alpha Centari (Proxima Centari being closest), and about 4 years ago…

@U-505:

Natty dread rides again. Jah, rastafari!

Ya, mon.  I’m from da beech…booooyeeeee!!!