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Hang on tight : Speed of LIGHT!

EarlyMon said:
Well, a counterpoint to that is that gravity is a theory and I wouldn't jump out the window to test it.
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The existence of Gravity is not a theory, but everything else about it is...

What generates gravity, how to calculate gravity, etc... Those are all theories that we can't seem to nail down just yet.
 
byteware said:
The existence of Gravity is not a theory, but everything else about it is...

What generates gravity, how to calculate gravity, etc... Those are all theories that we can't seem to nail down just yet.
Click to expand...

So - your theory is that gravity exists right outside that 12th floor window then...

:D j/k - as was the statement itself.

On a serious note, there are only two schools of thought on gravity - those who think there are two schools of thought and those that don't.

bigbadwulff said:
Answering from the space-time continuum: You are all wrong :)
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That's the not the point - the point is to look good while being wrong.
 
Q: No
Trelaine: No

But related to both by marriage. Family reunions SUCK big time!

Traveling at the speed of light is pretty interesting. Everything in front of you is nothing but a streak of light. Everything behind you is black. To the sides you see time. Pretty cool really.
 
What is the last thing to go through your mind after an instantaneous acceleration to light speed?

Your eyeballs!
 
I got another one to blow your minds...

Let's say a train was going at the speed of light or 99.99999....%. As it was going this fast, what if someone stands up and walks/runs to the front of the train? That would mean that person was traveling faster than light!...Or does it? Dun dun dun

(This was on the Science channel, I think, where they answered it)
 
then he would be traveling back in time....
and then the train would be moving backwards....
then he could not be doing faster than light..


so it never happened.. or he is in a time loop running down the train
 
Vinsanity93 said:
I got another one to blow your minds...

Let's say a train was going at the speed of light or 99.99999....%. As it was going this fast, what if someone stands up and walks/runs to the front of the train? That would mean that person was traveling faster than light!...Or does it? Dun dun dun

(This was on the Science channel, I think, where they answered it)
Click to expand...


It makes's our brain hurt...
 
Vinsanity93 said:
I got another one to blow your minds...

Let's say a train was going at the speed of light or 99.99999....%. As it was going this fast, what if someone stands up and walks/runs to the front of the train? That would mean that person was traveling faster than light!...Or does it? Dun dun dun

(This was on the Science channel, I think, where they answered it)
Click to expand...

Again - that pesky conversion factor.

You're only saying that that train is at near c compared to your frame of reference (your point of view) where both you and that train are at constant speed without acceleration.

What about if you're also on a train that seems like it's going slow to you but is already also at near c already compared to a third observer's frame of reference?

And if that third person's train is also seemingly slow to them but at near c to a person in a fourth train in another frame of reference?

From the belief that the universe rests on a turtle's back but what does the turtle stand on?

It's turtles, all the way down.

Nothing with mass exceeds c - but time does starts to do funny things - because 1 second of time in your frame of reference is NOT one second of time in everyone's frame of reference.

And time has a funny way of not being cheated.

PS - Let's make it even more fun:



  • Train A ------> going this-a-way at near c
  • Train B with you sitting at the station
  • going the other-a-away at near c <------- Train C

If both A and B were going 70, their relative speed difference would be 140.

At light speeds, would their relative speed difference add up the same way? Wouldn't .9 c + .9 c = 1.8 c?

Nope.

c is a conversion factor between space and time - it doesn't add.

Relativistic speed (things at nearly c) isn't the same as regular speed.

Pesky turtles, that's what it is.
 
How to show that pesky time dilation thing.


Suppose we're ethereal beings and we have these properties:


  • we're really tall - let's say, we're a million miles tall
  • we live and move in deep space with nothing around us - we move by floating magically at constant speeds and directions (there's no friction, but we don't care) - or we are in a group standing still, relative to each other
  • we own a magic ball of light and we can see it - and we own perfect mirrors
  • one of us has a clock
    • the clock is a glass tube with two perfect mirrors at either end
    • the clock is your basic 186,000+ miles long
    • the clock is oriented so the tube is vertical - uppy-downy, not side to side - it only works uppy-downy
    • we can watch the magic ball go from top to bottom while we're all standing still and we all agree that it took one second.


  1. Someone from another group with a magic clock just like ours floats by - or we float by him - we can't really tell
  2. Let's say the bottom of the magic clocks is even with our knees.
  3. While he floats by, he watches the magic ball move from top to bottom and he knows it took only a one-mississippi, one second, like always
  4. We're all watching him float by with his clock.
  5. Now the magic ball in it - as it appears to us - is not moving uppy-downy - it's moving at an angle in the direction he seems to moving relative to us.
  6. That would be a diagonal line to us.
  7. That diagonal line of travel would pass 186,000+ miles before the magic ball got to the bottom - or - before it got to his knees.
  8. When it gets to the bottom - about his knees - he calls out - A second!

While is busy insisting that his clock is exactly accurate to one constant second - we would disagree.

We would be seeing the magic ball travel 186,000+ miles and maybe be just below his waste on that diagonal line to us.

We would say, that's odd - his magic ball took a second to only reach just below his waist. A little while later - he would call out a - A second! - and it would be pretty clear to us that his clock is running slow.

And if we had the same magic clock as his and he watched us - he would think our time was off, too.

But if we could magically come to a halt without decelerating or messing up the works and compare - we'd find our clocks were identical and in perfect sync.

Time is not a constant for all points of view - it is only constant within a single point of view.

So, the "speed of light" stays constant - it's just a conversion factor.

But time does not stay constant when comparing things at near that speed of light.

And to make matters even worse - distances in space change depending on the changes of the strength of gravity from place to place.

So - time is not constant, distances are not constant - but they seem to be for any particular point of view, and you can calculate the differences in things if you have a conversion factor, like 2.54 cm/inch or 186,000+ miles/second.

Because a turtle is always just a turtle.
 
Damn turtles. Guess that explains why time moves much faster when I have to get something done (and even faster if I can just enjoy it) and those damn slow moving turtles again, it creeps by when i am doing something I don't want to.
 
Here's another:

If I had a stick let's say and it is 186000 miles long, if I shake the stick and at the same time shoot a beam of light in the same direction, which gets to the end of the stick first?

Troll physics ftw!
 
Vinsanity93 said:
Here's another:

If I had a stick let's say and it is 186000 miles long, if I shake the stick and at the same time shoot a beam of light in the same direction, which gets to the end of the stick first?

Troll physics ftw!
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OK, lets say that light was a laser, if I shot you in the eye with the laser while beating you with the stick which do you think would hurt first?:p
 
Blonde Physics

And by the way, there are a bunch of things beyond C...D,E,F,G,H...etc., etc.

ok...enough beer for tonight...
 
Vinsanity93 said:
Here's another:

If I had a stick let's say and it is 186000 miles long, if I shake the stick and at the same time shoot a beam of light in the same direction, which gets to the end of the stick first?

Troll physics ftw!
Click to expand...

Nice one. It's covered in a book called Superluminal Physics, available at fine grocery stores everywhere, only the end-point of a search light is used instead of a stick.

And say - that's might big stick, so - walk softly, mmmmk?

SamuraiBigEd said:
Blonde Physics

And by the way, there are a bunch of things beyond C...D,E,F,G,H...etc., etc.

ok...enough beer for tonight...
Click to expand...

Another nice try. I've submitted for this peer review by my blonde - she simply handed me another frosty one, amber and bubbly in the middle, foamy at the top end.
 
EarlyMon said:
Another nice try. I've submitted for this peer review by my blonde - she simply handed me another frosty one, amber and bubbly in the middle, foamy at the top end.
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I tip my glass to you sir, good health! Myself, I am enjoying a refreshing Newcastle Brown Ale.
 
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