Light travel

Discussion in 'Science and Nature' started by C21H30O2., Jun 7, 2008.

  1. Newtons theory of gravity says that gravity is based on mass. Einstein says that as we reach the speed of light the ship would become infinitely massive.

    What does this mean? If the ship becomes infinitely massive then it would have infinite gravity, wouldn't it? What would that do to everything around it? Time is also going to be slowed down because of near light travel.. + gravity.

    Maybe the ship would fold in on itself and "blink out". Maybe it would create a worm hole and would go through time and space.. Maybe we would survive, idk.

    I just was thinking about this while on the toilet..
    Enjoy lol :smoke:
     
  2. if u travel at the speed of light for 2 or so years.

    time on earth has been 8 years.

    is this due to the s.o.l. increasing relative time or gravity decreasing relative time

    what if a object with immense gravity travel at the s.o.l. how would relative time alter?
     
  3. I don't know the exact answer to your question, but I can tell you that Newtonian physics does not hold moving at speeds that great. I'm not sure how special relativity effects general relativity.

    I think that the increase in your mass relates to the reduced flow of relative time, but I don't know eough about the subject to give you any definitive kind of answer.

    PS: you can't actually get to the speed of light, because to become infinitely massive, one must expend infinite energy, which is more than there is in the universe.
     
  4. the universe is infinite
     
  5. what if you were going like 1 mph under lightspeed....would you just be going really fast in normal time?
     
  6. no one knows the answer
    the only thing we know is that traveling that fast would create some weird things
     
  7. or is it ;)
     
  8. No.

    The faster you go, time slows down. Regardless if you're going 1/10 the speed of light, or 1/2, or 1 mph under.

    Modern science will say that it is not :)
     
  9. light has a quantifiable speed, as far as we know gravity is completely instant.
     
  10. Gravity actually goes the speed of light. It isn't instant.
     
  11. you are arguing with a cornell grad here...
     
  12. "The speed of gravity has been measured for the first time. The landmark experiment shows that it travels at the speed of light, meaning that Einstein's general theory of relativity has passed another test with flying colours."

    http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3232
     
  13. the increase in mass/gravity is due not to velocity, but to ACCELERATION, so it is physically impossible to ACCELERATE to the speed of light. when particles are traveling at light speed (photons/electrons) they aren't infinitely massive, but they are/where constantly traveling at the speed of light, no acceleration.
    the only known way to theoretically travel faster than light is through a wormhole
     
  14. Heres a better question, what would it feel like?
     
  15. Einstein's theory of general relativity states that all things which have mass warp the space around them in proportion to the amount mass they posess. In this sense the effect of gravity is instant, meaning that anything that travels into the space already warped by another object will be effected instantly. Gravitational disturbances, however, travel at the speed of light. For example, if the sun were to blow apart, it would take about 8 minutes (the time it takes light to travel from the sun to earth) for the gravitational change to reach us. Assuming we weren't incenerated by the whole sun exploding thing.
     

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