A question about relativity.
Discussion
Eating dinner in front of the TV yesterday ‘bang goes the theory’ comes on and explains that if a passenger in a spaceship travels at 99% of light speed they will feel like a few hours have passed while the rest of us on earth will have experienced a week.
So my question is; if a passenger were to get in his spaceship and cruise at 99% of light speed for one year (as measured from Earth) then we would expect them to be 0.99 light years away. But for the passenger of the space ship only a month will have passed (for example), so when the passenger stops, from their perspective they would have travelled at 12 time light speed since they have moved about a light year, but have only experienced one month.
Where am I going wrong with this?
So my question is; if a passenger were to get in his spaceship and cruise at 99% of light speed for one year (as measured from Earth) then we would expect them to be 0.99 light years away. But for the passenger of the space ship only a month will have passed (for example), so when the passenger stops, from their perspective they would have travelled at 12 time light speed since they have moved about a light year, but have only experienced one month.
Where am I going wrong with this?
Depends where the year was measured...
if the time was measured on the space ship they would have experienced a year, we would have experienced lots of years.
if the time was measure on earth they would have experienced a month (wild guess, dunno exactly how long), we would have experienced a year.
if the time was measured on the space ship they would have experienced a year, we would have experienced lots of years.
if the time was measure on earth they would have experienced a month (wild guess, dunno exactly how long), we would have experienced a year.
Great book if you want to read about this sort of thing: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Does-mc2-Should-Care/d...
Written by the guy that did the Wonders of the Solar System TV series (Brian Cox).
Written by the guy that did the Wonders of the Solar System TV series (Brian Cox).
davido140 said:
Depends where the year was measured...
if the time was measured on the space ship they would have experienced a year, we would have experienced lots of years.
if the time was measure on earth they would have experienced a month (wild guess, dunno exactly how long), we would have experienced a year.
I get that bit - that the time is not the same for the two groups, but I'm questioning whether it is correct that from the spaceships point of view it has traveled faster than light.if the time was measured on the space ship they would have experienced a year, we would have experienced lots of years.
if the time was measure on earth they would have experienced a month (wild guess, dunno exactly how long), we would have experienced a year.
Colin 1985 said:
davido140 said:
Depends where the year was measured...
if the time was measured on the space ship they would have experienced a year, we would have experienced lots of years.
if the time was measure on earth they would have experienced a month (wild guess, dunno exactly how long), we would have experienced a year.
I get that bit - that the time is not the same for the two groups, but I'm questioning whether it is correct that from the spaceships point of view it has traveled faster than light.if the time was measured on the space ship they would have experienced a year, we would have experienced lots of years.
if the time was measure on earth they would have experienced a month (wild guess, dunno exactly how long), we would have experienced a year.
Edited by ewenm on Thursday 9th September 19:55
and all contracted by 1/(sqrt((1-(v^2)?(c^2)))
simples.
The special theory relates everything from a fixed point and with a single time. This is fairly easy to understand.
The general theory covers all cases, including how to move a clock from one place to the next and is far far more complex.
simples.
The special theory relates everything from a fixed point and with a single time. This is fairly easy to understand.
The general theory covers all cases, including how to move a clock from one place to the next and is far far more complex.
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