18 ms·
A Slower Speed of Light (2012)
- mensetmanusman 2y agoThe next version could be what happens as alpha approaches exactly 1/137.
- Uehreka 2y agoMy understanding (as a layperson) is that if the fine structure constant changes even a little bit, you basically don’t have atoms or molecules as we understand them. So the game would be something like: a=1/1: Nothingness as far as the eye can see … a=1/136: Nothingness as far as the eye can see a=1/137: BOOM! Life, the universe and everything Maybe I’m off, and maybe I have the numbers backwards (again, I’m a layperson), but I feel like the speed of light may be an unusual case among universal constants in that you can actually show an interesting gradient of effects as it changes.
- plank 2y agoThat is not how I remember physics (former PhD student here): The speed of light has a dimension, so it in itself does not change physics (thought experiment: everybody switches to feet-per-decade as the unit of choice, nothing really changes). It is the dimensionless constants that determine the real physics. Have not heard the statement that is alpha was a tiny factor larger/smaller that would make atoms no longer exist. It's this were true, this would actually be a way to actually calculate it from first principles ('at which value of alpha are there solutions to this equation'). Edit: typo
- pif 2y agoYour memory is playing tricks on you. The speed of light does change physics, as does any fundamental constant. Expressing a speed in different units does indeed yield different numbers, but that is not equivalent to a change of speed. Changing alpha means that electromagnetic force get stronger or weaker, thus the atoms still exist but with different orbital levels. Considering how intricate the orbital levels of atoms are, it's not shocking that a tiny change in alpha completely redefines chemistry, but chemistry would still exist.
- tsimionescu 2y agoThe point is that all of the speeds we measure are actually measured in units of the speed of light, if you go right down to it (seconds and meters are defined in terms of the speed of light). So, the value of the speed of light doesn't really matter - which is why c=1 is often used in many kinds of physics.
- Filligree 2y agoWhen people talk about changing the speed of light, they’re obviously not talking about that sort of bookkeeping.
- dooglius 2y agoThe fine structure constant is dimensionless and would be different if c were different. When doing a unit conversion, one also has to alter other constants so as to be consistent with observed reality; whether one alters other constants or not is the difference between talking about a change in units and a change in c.
- araes 2y agoFrom Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant and following further links: 4*π*ε_0*ħ*c*α = e^2 e is the charge, h is the Planck constant, ε_0 is the electric constant However, h is heavily related to c with E (photon energy) = h*c/λ where λ is wavelength. And, ε_0 = 1 / (μ_0*c^2) where μ_0 is the magnetic constant, and is determined experimentally as 4π × 1.00000000055(15)×10−7 H⋅m−1. A Kibble balance (dog food?) has become an instrument for measuring weight from a known current, rather than measuring current from a known weight.*
- dooglius 2y agoIt looks like this still doesn't cancel out? It's an interesting point as to whether our hypothetical change in c would affect the relationship between photon energy and wavelength, but either way we get a nonzero power of c.
- mr_mitm 2y agoThere is the Hoyle state, a peculiar resonance state that is very important for nucleosynthesis. Without it, stars would not produce a lot of carbon. It appears to be finely tuned for complex chemistry and thus life to evolve. Wikipedia says the the strong force must be within 0.5% of some value and the finestructure constant within 4%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-tuned_universe#Carbon_and_oxygen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-tuned_universe#Carbon_and...
- rakoo 2y agoNot an expert here, what is alpha ?
- mensetmanusman 2y agoIt might be a more fundamental constant than the speed of light as it relates the properties of space time and energy. At some point if you change the speed of light the information exchange inside of atoms would be disrupted and the system collapses.
- dartos 2y agoOh wow! I remember this thing from forever ago! Very cool concept
- GalaxyNova 2y agoFunny that it doesn't use the MIT license
- mattvr 2y agoIts underlying library, OpenRelativity, does.
- munchler 2y ago(2012)
- gumby 2y agoFor a good introduction to developing an intuition about special relativity via low speed of light, I really recommend George Gamow’s “Mr Tompkins in Wonderland” (or “in paperback”). These short stories explore things like how the world would look if the speed of light were 10 mph.
- asicsarecool 2y agoWow thank you I cant believe I've been ignorant of this my whole life. Thank you so much
- tetris11 2y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Tompkins https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Tompkins > Four Books in the Series > 1940: Mr Tompkins in Wonderland 1945: Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom 1953: Mr Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life 1967: Mr Tompkins Inside Himself There's a joke there in those last two titles but I'm not going to make it.
- greenbit 2y agoAlso from Gamow, and something that blew my (then) 12 year old mind: 1-2-3-Infinity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Two_Three..._Infinity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Two_Three..._Infinity
- tsimionescu 2y agoBut does that make any physical sense? All the other speeds we are familiar with would be proportionally slower, since they are all ultimately determined by fractions of the speed of light, right? For example, if the speed of light were 10mph, the speed of sound would be something like 0.6in/h, days would be much, much longer, chemical reactions would take hours etc. Overall, I don't think it would really make any difference for a human in this world: everything would actually be perfectly identical.
- enkid 2y agoWhy would these dependent on the speed of light?
- yaomtc 2y agoCool concept, but this game made me start to feel sick by the 5 minute mark when I finished it.
- neonate 2y agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20240513041141/http://gamelab.mit.edu/games/a-slower-speed-of-light/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240513041141/http://gamelab.mi...
- andoando 2y agoWhat would happen if say you were traveling 1 m/s and the speed of light was 2m/s? I imagine there has to be some special properties when youre at exactly half, or some other special ratio of the speed of light
- nox101 2y agoI know I've seen YouTube videos about that maybe this one? https://youtu.be/ge_j31Yx_yk https://youtu.be/ge_j31Yx_yk
- franciscop 2y agoNot really AFAIK, since it's an asymptote regarding your speed vs speed of light, so it's a pretty continuous curve. The point where things become weird is at close to the speed of light so in your example at like 1.9~1.999 m/s, and physics "break" at 2m/s, but there's not a sigle point between 0~1.999 where anything "surprising" happens.
- willis936 2y agoI feel like your field of vision expanding and everything around you freezing might be considered surprising. These don't become noticeable until near the top end.
- franciscop 2y agoYes but I purposefully used "a single point" in my phrase; since this phenomena doesn't happen in discrete steps, but in a continuum.
- lupire 2y agoThings get "weird" non uniformly at all the various fuzzy intervals where the effects of relativity are significant in scale compared to the measurement error, in time and space dimension, of whatever phenomena you are studying or experiencing. There are many of these phenomena at different scales, and which ones you care about is subjective.
- 2y ago
- ho_schi 2y agoNative port for Linux :)
- lupire 2y agoThis thing was a monster to try to run on computers of the day when it came out.
- greenbit 2y agoHeh - 'core 2 duo' .. that's about 2005 vintage isn't it? Should be nice and smooth on modern hardware.
- isp 2y agoRelated game Velocity Raptor (2012): https://www.testtubegames.com/velocityraptor.html https://www.testtubegames.com/velocityraptor.html Previously discussed: - "Velocity Raptor – an adventure in 2+1 dimensions" (Mar 2015, 39 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9247460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9247460 I am pleasantly surprised to see this still online (ported from Flash to HTML5).
- justinpombrio 2y agoAnother game in this vein of "teaching math/physics through gameplay" is Hyperbolica, where you explore a 3D world with hyperbolic (and later spherical) geometry. It's mind bending. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1256230/Hyperbolica/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1256230/Hyperbolica/
- nsedlet 2y agoI've been curious what a version of this based on general relativity would be like and whether that would be interesting.
- zackkatz 2y agoPlaying this game on my 27” iMac was the first time I experienced nausea from motion sickness. I felt ill for two days. Player beware!
- mensetmanusman 2y agoSir, we have reached alpha centurion, please use the puke bag.
- garfieldnate 2y agoThere was once a flash game that integrated principles of relativity into its mechanics for teaching purposes. It was a series of 2D rooms with the goal being to move from point A to B. I remember there being changing distances as well as colors, for example moving a certain way would change the color of a lock so that the key of that color could unlock it. It was good fun, and it was written by a physicist and hosted on a humble personal site. I can't remember where I saw it, but if anyone knows the reference, please share a link.
- hcs 2y agoWas it Velocity Raptor? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40342086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40342086
- garfieldnate 2y agoYes! Thank you! It's a wonderful game!