The Two Car Paradox

[moreflaps]

Simpo Two said:

Gene Vincent said:

Awwww man... it appears that you need more speed because the car in front accelerates before the one behind does out of every bend, the result is the impression that the car behind appears to need to go faster to keep up on Englands winding roads.

OK, I've solved that for you... now, have you any fking idea whatsoever what the lottery numbers are tonight?

Tit-for-tat and all that!

I was rather hoping that the first car created a slight warping of the gravity field, such that when measured relative to itself it was going faster than the second car (gravity/time/speed yada), but wasn't from a bystander's view.

I'll let somebody else do the proof as my maths expired at trigonometry level. Sorry no idea on the lottery; I avoid it as it's designed to raise money for somebody else, ergo I will lose it.

Depends on the direction they were going doesn't it?

Cheers

[tuscaneer]

Simpo Two said:

What with all this time and relativity/expanding stuff flying about, let me reveal the secret of the Two Car Paradox.

Envisage two cars proceding one after the other along a road. The gap between them remains constant.

When I was a small boy I confounded my parents by insisting that the first car had to be travelling faster than the second car in order to stay in front. I thought that if they travelled at the same speed, they would end up side by side.

Normal physics says this is wrong, and that both cars are travelling at the same speed. So I just wondered whether, if one threw in some advanced Gene Vincent stuff, whether we could prove my childhood idea correct? Was I a child genius (now lapsed) or just plain wrong in any time and dimension?

doesn't it just depend on the start of the journey?if they both set off at the same time then they will be side by side.but for one to be in front it must have set off first to create the distance gap in the first place.same speed,it always stays in frontif it was first away assuming everything else is identical(acceleration and so on)

[maffski]

Simpo Two said:

What with all this time and relativity/expanding stuff flying about, let me reveal the secret of the Two Car Paradox.

Envisage two cars proceding one after the other along a road. The gap between them remains constant.

When I was a small boy I confounded my parents by insisting that the first car had to be travelling faster than the second car in order to stay in front. I thought that if they travelled at the same speed, they would end up side by side.

Normal physics says this is wrong, and that both cars are travelling at the same speed. So I just wondered whether, if one threw in some advanced Gene Vincent stuff, whether we could prove my childhood idea correct? Was I a child genius (now lapsed) or just plain wrong in any time and dimension?

Both vehicles will wear down the road surface slightly. If the road is on a sphere then effectively the circumference of the sphere will therefore be very slightly less for the second car (if it stays in the wheel tracks) this would mean on each loop around the sphere (planet) the second car would catch up slightly.

[wormburner]

maffski said:

Simpo Two said:

What with all this time and relativity/expanding stuff flying about, let me reveal the secret of the Two Car Paradox.

Envisage two cars proceding one after the other along a road. The gap between them remains constant.

When I was a small boy I confounded my parents by insisting that the first car had to be travelling faster than the second car in order to stay in front. I thought that if they travelled at the same speed, they would end up side by side.

Normal physics says this is wrong, and that both cars are travelling at the same speed. So I just wondered whether, if one threw in some advanced Gene Vincent stuff, whether we could prove my childhood idea correct? Was I a child genius (now lapsed) or just plain wrong in any time and dimension?

Both vehicles will wear down the road surface slightly. If the road is on a sphere then effectively the circumference of the sphere will therefore be very slightly less for the second car (if it stays in the wheel tracks) this would mean on each loop around the sphere (planet) the second car would catch up slightly.

That'd only work on the first lap. After that, the first car is running in the tracks of the second, just as the second is running in the tracks of the first.

[MiseryStreak]

If you analyse all of the variables in the experiment, many of them cancelling each other out, about the only thing you can be certain of is that the two cars will not be travelling at the same speed to maintain the same gap.

Simpo Two - your genius was so far in advance of your parent's grasp, they could not even begin to comprehend the breadth and brevity of your erudite statement.

[Simpo Two]

Sometimes it is beyond my own grasp too!




Being ignorant can be quite useful; it stops facts getting in the way of ideas...

[wormburner]

Exactly.

Will the people saying it can't be done please step to one side. You're getting in the way of the people who are doing it.

There's a lot to be said for not knowing how difficult something is, and in ignorance, finding it easy. Exhibit A: golf.