That if you travel at the speed of light for one year away from the earth and then come back at the same speed, everyone on earth that you once knew, will be gone?
2007-03-14 17:01:56 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Well, to be precise the theory of relativity prohibits anything that has mass to travel at the actual speed of light c, or 186,282 miles per second. However, in theory it is possible to travel close to that speed, and one of the ramifications is that time dilates in that reference frame, or in other words moves forward more slowly in comparison to other frames.
It's not a question of whether you think it's true - this is experimentally verified. One doesn't get to choose which facts are true and which aren't - special relativity is a very real phenomenon, as real as any other phenomenon you observe directly.
2007-03-14 17:12:19 · answer #1 · answered by yoericd 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
For what reason are you asking this question? Anyway...Considering that if you could travel at light speed because you and your spacecraft have the property called mass? Right? This is "impossible" according to accepted Physical theory considering the Lorentzian mass accretion corelation to velocities approaching that of light...
If you were to travel at light speed for a total of two years (one light year away and one light year back, one light year being the distance that light were to travel in one year at light speed...) for you, in your spacecraft, time stopped. You do not age. No time has passed at all. It is as if you never left. You would not remember any events on the trip because you were only gone for an instant...relative to your frame of reference. But since you traveled for two years, in the reference frame of Earth, all others on good ol' planet Earth would have become two years older and would have enjoyed two years of experience that you did not.
Kind of a rip off, huh? Your friends age and have fun and for you nothing happened.
Unless everyone you knew had a terminal illness, or were very old, or...the politicians decided for all of us that planetary suicide was the best option...Everyone you knew would still be here...Just that they would be two years older than when you left.
2007-03-15 00:33:56 · answer #2 · answered by mr.gold 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think its true, despite that you cannot travel that fast.
you can find a technical example that this sort of timeshift happens, because the clocks onboard the Global Positioning systems satellites must been corrected because of it.
If this wouldn't be done the system renders to be useless.
in an experiment they put atomic clocks in an airplane and let it fly around. right after landing clocks on the ground were compared to those flying, and it was figured that the 'accelerated' clocks were running a tiny fraction of a second slower than those on ground.
as a third evidence:
in particle accelerators we learned about the existence of a special form of electrons called Myons. These particles emerge in specific conditions, form the destruction of matter, which is intentionally being done in those accelerators, to figure about subatomic particles.
These Myons do only exist for a well defined short time.
Then it was discovered that Myons pepper the earth's surface from somewhere above, which later was found to be cosmic radiation hitting molecules in the uppermost layers of the atmosphere causing this.
Now that was a problem, since it was known that they normally do not exist long enough to reach the earth's surface.
So it was figured, that they must travel at such high speeds that their lifespan is longer, because for THEM time runs slower, for being in fast motion.
soooo what else does it need to show that this is true ?
2007-03-15 04:59:16 · answer #3 · answered by blondnirvana 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i do. it takes hours to walk from a to b, yet it takes only a second to travel from a to b, traveling at the speed of light. All of that shaved off time will be felt by people sitting stationary or close to stationary positions.
2007-03-15 15:55:03 · answer #4 · answered by Adam B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The explanation I've heard is that it's the CHANGE in your velocity (i.e., the acceleration) that causes time in your "frame of reference" (your spaceship) to be different from time on earth.
It seems that a lot of odd things happen at velocities near the speed of light, or at submicroscopic (subatomic) levels. We think that they couldn't possibly happen, but that's because they are so far removed from our own experience (which happens at a "macroscopic" level at speeds far, far below the speed of light.
Bottom line: These "facts" are hard for me to imagine or believe, but I do believe that the scientists are right.
2007-03-15 00:10:47 · answer #5 · answered by actuator 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i would use convetinal rockets yes its true
at leasy 1000ds of years would of had past in no tmilions,
if use the antigravituy craft uare distorting space/time
SO u can live be gone one year come back in 5 minutes
everybody still here
coapisscii?
watch video for more details:)
2007-03-15 01:37:59 · answer #6 · answered by infinate wisdom 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well... you can travel away from the earth and just go around in circles and you wouldn't be that far now, would u?
2007-03-15 00:13:02 · answer #7 · answered by anonymous 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Theory of relativity says that but i dont think so it will happen really.
2007-03-15 00:06:25 · answer #8 · answered by krissh 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋