4 ms·

If you were actually going the speed of light, all travel becomes instantaneous from your reference frame.

by bcgraham 14y ago

y0ghur7_xxx 14y ago
Why is 299.792.458 m/s instantaneous from your reference frame? Like the OP, I don't understand.
- felipemnoa 14y ago
  Within your own frame of reference time slows down the faster you move. This is why from your own frame of reference light seems to always be moving at c no matter how close to c you get. Once you get to c time will be frozen. So if you travel for an entire year at c to you it will look like it was instantaneous, it wasn't, you could say you were "unconscious" the entire time. Somebody from a different frame of reference will notice you traveling at the speed of light and will notice that you are frozen in time.
  - capnrefsmmat 14y ago
    Careful. Within your own frame of reference, time always progresses at a normal rate. When you are traveling near the speed of light, distances contract; at the speed of light, all distances in the direction of travel would be zero. On the other hand, someone stationary watching you travel near the speed of light would say that your clock slows down more the faster you move, but lengths stay the same.
    - felipemnoa 14y ago
      >>Careful. Within your own frame of reference, time always progresses at a normal rate. You are correct. I don't think I said otherwise. I guess I should have been clearer, time slows down in the frame of reference traveling at c when looking at it from a different frame of reference. I'm sure we are saying the same thing. >>at the speed of light, all distances in the direction of travel would be zero. Yeah, but a person observing you in a different frame of reference won't see that. The fact that distances are zero is just another way of saying that time has slowed down in your frame of reference. Is just two faces of the same coin.
      - capnrefsmmat 14y ago
        > The fact that distances are zero is just another way of saying that time has slowed down in your frame of reference. Is just two faces of the same coin. Indeed. You can see this sort of effect in, say, the muon decay demo in my relativity simulator: http://www.refsmmat.com/jsphys/relativity/relativity.html http://www.refsmmat.com/jsphys/relativity/relativity.html The muon decay lifetime observations can be explained equally well in terms of time dilation or length contraction.
- foxhill 14y ago
  the speed of light, c, can be violated from your frame of reference, but the external observer doesn't see this - it's your perception of time that has slowed down. you reach the speed of light (from the perspective of an external observer) when your local velocity is infinite (and then all travel becomes instantaneous).
  - capnrefsmmat 14y ago
    I'm not sure what this means. c cannot be exceeded in any frame of reference. Your "local" velocity is always zero -- you always measure your own speed with respect to yourself to be zero. From your perspective, reaching the speed of light causes all distances in the direction of travel to become zero. Your clock functions correctly and time travels at the ordinary pace. From a stationary observer's perspective, distances are the same but your clock has stopped.
felipemnoa 14y ago
But from my own frame of reference all I would see is people frozen in time traveling a the speed of light, not really instantaneous. So in essence, the laws of physics have a built in hibernation mode for anybody traveling at c </joke>.
stephengillie 14y ago
If you were actually going the speed of light, light would still have to be able to go ~300kmh faster than you. To make this happen, time slows down for you. That's what special relativity says - in any reference frame, light is always traveling v + c, where v is your velocity and c is the speed of light. To make this happen, time itself slows down. But how would this actually work? Does this mean electrons would "orbit" within the electron cloud more slowly? (If not, then molecules larger than Z=137 may be possible.)
- felipemnoa 14y ago
  >>But how would this actually work? Does this mean electrons would "orbit" within the electron cloud more slowly? Yes, all of the particles within that frame of reference slow down. Why? Who knows. Maybe space becomes more "viscous" which slows down all particles within it.
  - capnrefsmmat 14y ago
    The "why" in the framework of special relativity would be "because the Lorentz transformations rotate points in four-dimensional spacetime." If you imagine every event as having (x,y,z,t) coordinates in a particular reference frame, the Lorentz transformation is a 4x4 matrix which rotates events to show what would be observed in another reference frame. You trade spatial distance for temporal distance and vice versa. This comes out of the structure of spacetime, rather than viscosity of some kind, which would be visible as a force.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - felipemnoa 14y ago
      Your answer does not explain why. It correctly predicts the universe but it is not a why. Why do all particles slow down as speed increases? I'm looking for a more fundamental answer here.
      - 14y ago
foxhill 14y ago
*if you were actually going at the speed of light from a stationary observer, all travel becomes instantaneous from your reference frame. the speed of light, c, can be violated from your frame of reference, but the external observer doesn't see this - it's your perception of time that has slowed down. you reach the speed of light (from the perspective of an external observer) when your local velocity is infinite (and then all travel becomes instantaneous).
7rurl 14y ago
Also, when traveling at the speed of light the entire universe would appear to have collapsed down to a single point, because of length contraction. So really, the notion of movement or change completely breaks down when you are moving at the speed of light... except in your reference frame were everything is normal. Also, it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate something to the speed of light, so the speed of light is a limit that you can never actually reach (i.e. an asymptotic limit).

If you were actually going the speed of light, all travel becomes instantaneous from your reference frame.

y0ghur7_xxx 14y ago

Why is 299.792.458 m/s instantaneous from your reference frame? Like the OP, I don't understand.

felipemnoa 14y ago
Within your own frame of reference time slows down the faster you move. This is why from your own frame of reference light seems to always be moving at c no matter how close to c you get. Once you get to c time will be frozen. So if you travel for an entire year at c to you it will look like it was instantaneous, it wasn't, you could say you were "unconscious" the entire time. Somebody from a different frame of reference will notice you traveling at the speed of light and will notice that you are frozen in time.
- capnrefsmmat 14y ago
  Careful. Within your own frame of reference, time always progresses at a normal rate. When you are traveling near the speed of light, distances contract; at the speed of light, all distances in the direction of travel would be zero. On the other hand, someone stationary watching you travel near the speed of light would say that your clock slows down more the faster you move, but lengths stay the same.
  - felipemnoa 14y ago
    >>Careful. Within your own frame of reference, time always progresses at a normal rate. You are correct. I don't think I said otherwise. I guess I should have been clearer, time slows down in the frame of reference traveling at c when looking at it from a different frame of reference. I'm sure we are saying the same thing. >>at the speed of light, all distances in the direction of travel would be zero. Yeah, but a person observing you in a different frame of reference won't see that. The fact that distances are zero is just another way of saying that time has slowed down in your frame of reference. Is just two faces of the same coin.
    - capnrefsmmat 14y ago
      > The fact that distances are zero is just another way of saying that time has slowed down in your frame of reference. Is just two faces of the same coin. Indeed. You can see this sort of effect in, say, the muon decay demo in my relativity simulator: http://www.refsmmat.com/jsphys/relativity/relativity.html http://www.refsmmat.com/jsphys/relativity/relativity.html The muon decay lifetime observations can be explained equally well in terms of time dilation or length contraction.
foxhill 14y ago
the speed of light, c, can be violated from your frame of reference, but the external observer doesn't see this - it's your perception of time that has slowed down. you reach the speed of light (from the perspective of an external observer) when your local velocity is infinite (and then all travel becomes instantaneous).
- capnrefsmmat 14y ago
  I'm not sure what this means. c cannot be exceeded in any frame of reference. Your "local" velocity is always zero -- you always measure your own speed with respect to yourself to be zero. From your perspective, reaching the speed of light causes all distances in the direction of travel to become zero. Your clock functions correctly and time travels at the ordinary pace. From a stationary observer's perspective, distances are the same but your clock has stopped.

felipemnoa 14y ago

But from my own frame of reference all I would see is people frozen in time traveling a the speed of light, not really instantaneous. So in essence, the laws of physics have a built in hibernation mode for anybody traveling at c </joke>.

stephengillie 14y ago

If you were actually going the speed of light, light would still have to be able to go ~300kmh faster than you. To make this happen, time slows down for you. That's what special relativity says - in any reference frame, light is always traveling v + c, where v is your velocity and c is the speed of light. To make this happen, time itself slows down. But how would this actually work? Does this mean electrons would "orbit" within the electron cloud more slowly? (If not, then molecules larger than Z=137 may be possible.)

felipemnoa 14y ago
>>But how would this actually work? Does this mean electrons would "orbit" within the electron cloud more slowly? Yes, all of the particles within that frame of reference slow down. Why? Who knows. Maybe space becomes more "viscous" which slows down all particles within it.
- capnrefsmmat 14y ago
  The "why" in the framework of special relativity would be "because the Lorentz transformations rotate points in four-dimensional spacetime." If you imagine every event as having (x,y,z,t) coordinates in a particular reference frame, the Lorentz transformation is a 4x4 matrix which rotates events to show what would be observed in another reference frame. You trade spatial distance for temporal distance and vice versa. This comes out of the structure of spacetime, rather than viscosity of some kind, which would be visible as a force.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - felipemnoa 14y ago
    Your answer does not explain why. It correctly predicts the universe but it is not a why. Why do all particles slow down as speed increases? I'm looking for a more fundamental answer here.
    - 14y ago

foxhill 14y ago

*if you were actually going at the speed of light from a stationary observer, all travel becomes instantaneous from your reference frame. the speed of light, c, can be violated from your frame of reference, but the external observer doesn't see this - it's your perception of time that has slowed down. you reach the speed of light (from the perspective of an external observer) when your local velocity is infinite (and then all travel becomes instantaneous).

7rurl 14y ago

Also, when traveling at the speed of light the entire universe would appear to have collapsed down to a single point, because of length contraction. So really, the notion of movement or change completely breaks down when you are moving at the speed of light... except in your reference frame were everything is normal. Also, it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate something to the speed of light, so the speed of light is a limit that you can never actually reach (i.e. an asymptotic limit).