the ambiguity of light

provided all motion involved is uniform, we can translate motion perceived in one frame of reference to another frame of reference.

If we are on a platform, and we see a train move past us a 30 miles/hour. The train is a frame of reference moving uniformly to us on the platform. If there is man on the train walking in the train at 3 km/hr in the very same direction as the train is, then that man's speed in reference to the train is 3 miles/hour but in reference to us on the platform is 33km/hr. (Speed of train + speed of man).

The converse also holds true, where the man in the train if he walks at 3 miles/hour in the opposite direction as the motion of the train, then man's speed on the train
with reference to the person on the platform would be 27 miles/ hour.
(speed of train - speed of man)

In every day experience, this could be seen when we walk on an escalator as opposed to remaining still we reach the higher floor much faster.

Taking this one step ahead, lets say if I was driving a car at 50 miles/hour and you come by in a Ferrari at 75 miles/hour, with respect to me the Ferrari would be at 25miles/hour.

However, when we use a similar example with light, the laws of transformation do not hold ground. If the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second & if we are travelling in the same direction as light let say at 100,000 miles an hour, the light should be travelling faster at 286,000 miles/hour on account of the Newtonian Law of transformation that is compounded with our speed, but that is not so, light continues to travel at 186,000 miles/hour irrespective of our speed.

If we were travelling away form the source at 100,000 miles/ hour of light the relative speed does not decrease to 86,000 miles/hour , it still remain the same at 186,000 miles/hour.

To most of us, this contrariwise logic about the speed of light becomes difficult to grasp. And this reason is largely because we live our lives at speeds much slower than the speed of light. As such we get accustomed to such low speed where the laws of transformation hold good, or rather our senses get used to the limited environment we have.

If we would want to expand our understanding beyond the limitation of our environment it becomes necessary to rearrange our thoughts.

And this is what Einstein did, he was the first to see that it would require one to look at physics in a whole new light a whole new thought process. When he published his theory of Relativity in 1905, he was aware of the ambiguity of light and his thesis did show that light did behave in such a manner. The prevailing thought at that time was based on Newtonian Laws.

It would be important to note that Einstein did not get the Nobel Prize for the theory of Relativity, but the Nature of Light. He got the Nobel Prize to overcome the limitation of the environment, to rearrange his thoughts - he created that paradigm shift.