| From: Tony | 23/03/2000
11:38:00 |
| Subject: Theory of relativity | post id:
49406 |
| If time slows and mass increases
as you near the speed of light, then it stands to reason that time gets
faster and mass decreases as you move slower through space. Question:How
can zero velocity be acheived and what is the speed of light relative to?.
Time must be considered a human concept and therefor flawed as an accurate
measurement for there is nothing to benchmark it from.
| |
| From: B.C. | 23/03/2000
12:46:00 |
| Subject: re: Theory of relativity | post id:
49434 |
| The speed of light is related to
ones own reference frame and is the same for everyone.For the other part
of your question,as something slows time goes faster,for someone outside
your frame of reference.Everthing appears as normal to you weather you
speed up or slow down.Its only people or aliens outside your frame of
reference that will notice any difference,the same as you will notice
there clocks, ect slowing down or speeding up.
| |
| From: James Richmond (Avatar) | 23/03/2000
14:54:00 |
| Subject: re: Theory of relativity | post id:
49504 |
| If time
slows and mass increases as you near the speed of light, then it stands to
reason that time gets faster and mass decreases as you move slower through
space. These things happen only from the point of view of an observer watching you. You don't notice any difference in the rate at which time passes for you as you near the speed of light. If you look back at a "stationary" person, you see their time as flowing at a slower rate than yours, whilst they see your time as flowing at a slower rate than theirs. Who is right? Both of you - your relative speed gives you both different perceptions of time. Question:How can zero velocity be acheived and what is the speed of light relative to?. Time must be considered a human concept and therefor flawed as an accurate measurement for there is nothing to benchmark it from. Zero velocity can be achieved by standing still! Light travels at the same speed for all observers, regardless of their states of motion. That is one of the strange things about light. When specifying the speed of light, there is no need to say "relative to what?" as we need to do for all massive objects. Time is not (totally) a human construct, and there are benchmarks against which it is measured. The standard second is defined in terms of the frequency of hyperfine oscillations of caesium 133 atoms. Anyone who measures this frequency in their own rest frame will measure the same frequency as anyone else, so it is possible to agree on the length of a second. JR | |
| From: Chris (Avatar) | 24/03/2000
14:36:00 |
| Subject: re: Theory of relativity | post id:
49876 |
Question:How can zero velocity be acheived and what is the speed of light relative to? No matter how fast you think you're travelling, you are always standing still with respect to light. Example: You and I sit in a special laboratory. Neither of us moves. We measure the speed of light in the lab and we find it to be c. This means that light is travelling "c" faster than us. Now we accelerate you around the lab (in a special apparatus) until I measure that you are travelling at 90%c with respect to me. I measure the speed of light in the lab and find it to be c (still). So light is travelling "c" faster than me. You, inside your apparatus, measure the speed of light in there. The catch is - you also measure it to be c, despite the fact that you are travelling at 0.9c with respect to me. So you've done some heavy accelerating, but you're still "c" less than the speed of light. You will never catch it - all inertial observers always measure light to be locally travelling at c. And that is precisely what special relativity is all about. Hope this helps! Chris | |