Any physicists in the house?

[cygnusx1]

I always found it cool that by the same token, the faster you travel, relative to the speed of light, the slower your timespace goes. If you travel at high speeds for a while, and then come back to compare watches with a buddy that just sat on the couch, your watch would be set back from his. This has been proven via orbiting astronauts. If you travel at the speed of light, your watch stops.

 

Faster Z makes you live longer relative to other slower people!

[Nizm0Zed]

I'm more inclined to believe gasses and everything else is/are denser at or below sea level because my boss is at sea level. He is an inestimably dense individual. I strongly suspect that, if he were to ever climb to the top of mount everest, the entire climate would invert... would probably even rain upwards.

 

 

well, i see that your all smart people (and its a good read, scary i understand it)

But seriously, Best answer EVER!!!!!

Give this man a Nobel!

[Zmanco]

Going back to Grim's original questions, for the world in which we live, classical Newtonian physics works just fine. It's only when one goes really fast, or goes really small, that the effects of things such as Relativity begin to matter.

 

 

Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mechanics and scroll down to Limits of Validity.

 

For more on Gravity, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity and scroll down to "Earth's gravity".

 

I have that History Channel show recorded but haven't watched it yet. But based on other History Channel shows I've seen, it's a good idea to question what they "teach". There are much better sources, even for non-scientists. For example, I'll second the suggestion to read Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time". He's a very smart guy who does a pretty good job of explaining complex subjects in reasonable terms. If nothing else, it will get you thinking!

[Jon 74 260Z]

On a slightly different topic, be careful of simplistic explanations of time-shifting at relativistic speeds -- most of them are dead wrong. The only one that has been proven over and over again is:

 

Ever notice how time slows down right before your Z crashes into something? To the person in the Z, the last few milliseconds before impact take literally minutes (of not hours) to pass in their frame of reference.

 

This could be true for other vehicles as well but I haven't done as much research into this as I have in the Z. And my pain avoidance mechanism prohibits me from doing more of the said research. I'll let others conduct those experiments if they want to...

[ZZZeee]

^^^ Yes but those wrecked Z's were traveling near the SoL.

[dr_hunt]

If you travel at the speed of light, your watch stops.

 

And here I thought if you wore a timex it would never quit! Supposedly they take a licking and keep on ticking. I have often wondered what happens to the mass and how much energy it would take to get to the speed of light. Probably never know I guess. I asked Scotty in engineering and he said a potload of dilithium crystals should do the job. Too bad I'm fresh out.

 

Faster Z makes you live longer relative to other slower people!

I knew there was a good reason to build a fast z!!!

[wheelman]

Along with Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time" a good one to read is "In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality" by John Gribbin, it's a layman's view of quantum physics.

If you think the relativity stuff gets wierd this book will make you question what drugs were in use when the theories of quantum physics were developed.

 

Here's a thought experiment or question:

Ignore the fact that sound needs a medium of transmission and varies it's speed due to the density of the medium. Now ask yourself if the theory of relativity would appear any different if we were to use sound as the tool to measure our world.

Here's my take on this. We measure everything in our "world" using light (electromagnetic radiation), it has a finite speed, which produces the strange effects as you approach it. If sound were used to measure our "world" (light is not available, you are blind), as an object approached the speed of sound the same effects would become apparent.

 

Think about it for a while before responding, what does it say about the nature of our Universe, if anything?

 

Wheelman

[AkumaNoZeta]

The whole spacetime thing confuses the blah out of me. I always thought of time as an idea created by man and things such as watches and stuff to be mechanical devices so when I think of it I cant see how it's reading would change from differences in traveling speeds. I need to hit up the library and see if they have those books. I want to be smart too.

[cygnusx1]

OK I am going to get a little deeper here. Time is flexible. Doesn't every year seem to go faster and faster than the previous year? I think there is a connection to these feelings and the flexibility of time. I think we are either accelerating or decelerating in someones larger frame of reference. This would explain the feelings we get of years going by faster and faster. No I don't do drugs. I just think.

 

Imagine our "outer space" along with all of our neighborhood stars and galaxies moving through a larger space? What are the odds that we are moving along at a steady rate? I say slim to none.

[ZZZeee]

The whole spacetime thing confuses the blah out of me. I always thought of time as an idea created by man and things such as watches and stuff to be mechanical devices so when I think of it I cant see how it's reading would change from differences in traveling speeds. I need to hit up the library and see if they have those books. I want to be smart too.

 

There is no such thing as "smart". Only those who believe they are smart are smart. I do not believe they are smart. Smart people are only smart in their own minds. And time does not exist except in the minds of those who believe it does.

 

EDIT: Do not try to bend time. That is impossible. Only try to see the truth. There is no time.

[hughdogz]

I watch a lot of History channel. Sometimes their experts contradict each other in the same program

 

The experiment that proved relativity was that you could measure the position of the stars shift during an eclipse, since the space bends around the Sun. I think you should be able to see a star that should be hidden behind the edge of the sun during an eclipse.

 

Time does "slow down" depending on gravity. Modern GPS satellites have to take this into account. Their clocks run ever so slightly slower since they are in orbit, compared to the surface of the Earth.

 

I think the reason years seem to go by faster is because every year that passes is a smaller percentage of your total life. In grade school, a summer seemed to last forever. Einstein said when you're in physical pain, times seems to slow down, but if you're with a beautiful girl, it goes by quickly.

 

Another curious thing is that you could never reach the speed of light, since as you approach the speed of light, your apparent mass increases. Since you're heavier, you'll have to apply more power to approach it, which will again make you heavier. It would take an infinite amount power, so you can never reach it.

 

One of the last things Einstein was working on is how the mind can have an effect on random events...effecting the physical world through thoughts.

[woldson]

Another curious thing is that you could never reach the speed of light, since as you approach the speed of light, your apparent mass increases. Since you're heavier, you'll have to apply more power to approach it, which will again make you heavier. It would take an infinite amount power, so you can never reach it.

 

 

Ya but math states you can divide down a distance in half, infinitly, in which case you can never pass any given point, sigh.

 

This effect has some verification here with some of your guys projects. Teehee.

[S130Z]

I always found it cool that by the same token, the faster you travel, relative to the speed of light, the slower your timespace goes. If you travel at high speeds for a while, and then come back to compare watches with a buddy that just sat on the couch, your watch would be set back from his. This has been proven via orbiting astronauts. If you travel at the speed of light, your watch stops.

 

Faster Z makes you live longer relative to other slower people!

 

This is the theory of Special Relativity. Your watch wouldn't actually stop, but time would. Time would go by alot faster on earth while you were in light speed.The ratio in time is quite shocking actually. I don't remember exactly what it is but it is something like 150 years on Earth per year you are at light speed.

 

Another curious thing is that you could never reach the speed of light, since as you approach the speed of light, your apparent mass increases. Since you're heavier, you'll have to apply more power to approach it, which will again make you heavier. It would take an infinite amount power, so you can never reach it.

 

 

Ya but math states you can divide down a distance in half, infinitly, in which case you can never pass any given point, sigh.

 

This effect has some verification here with some of your guys projects. Teehee.

 

I was watching a presentation on the new partical accelerator in Europe and there 17 miles wide smasher pushes protons at a fraction of a mile an hour away from the speed of light. Now that is fast. I wonder if the laws of physics are really holding back our technology or our technology is just not stronge enough.

 

If you are ever looking for a mind blowing read, pick up the book Fabrics of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. The book breaks down the laws of physics and mostly everything to know into simple terms.