cummulative propulsive exceleration
2007-04-03 13:58:14 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
They do. They also take into account the change of space and time as speed increases. Space gets smaller and time gets slower in such a way that you are always moving slower than light. To you, in the space ship, you could get to a star billions of light years away in maybe 10 or 20 years without ever going faster than light. To the people on Earth you take billions of years to go to that same star. To the people on the ship, the universe shrinks to 10 light years in size and they travel for a little more than 10 years at a little less than the speed of light. To the people on Earth the universe stays the same size and the rocket travels billions of years at nearly the speed of light to go there. To the people on the ship they are accelerating at 1G all the way, but to the people on Earth the ship is accelerating more and more slowly until after not so many years it is at nearly the speed of light and hardly accelerating at all. This is what the math of relativity says. It says time, distance and everything you calculate based on those is not absolute reality. It says it depends on your point of view. Believe it or not.
2007-04-03 14:44:05 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
People would probably take your question more seriously if you knew how to spell cumulative, or acceleration.
The current explanations of how matter behaves when it is traveling at speeds approaching light speed are well developed and, you can be sure, take distance and all other relevant factors into account.
You would probably be able to make better sense of this topic if you took some courses in physics and higher maths.
2007-04-03 14:12:02 · answer #2 · answered by matt 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
First of all, matter can not travel at "c" because at that speed it ceases to be matter and is energy. BUT....IF it could, time stops. For instance, if you could run alongside an emission of light, what you would see would never change. All those same light waves or photons would always be right next to you. Since there is no change in your environs you would always think you were standing still (time stops, remember?) Since you are standing still (or always seem to be in the same place) there would be no distance covered.
2007-04-03 14:13:34 · answer #3 · answered by Bruce D 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
They do:
Travelling to the nearest star at the speed of light would take 4.3 years.
That is 4.3 light years, which is a distance equivalent to about 25 million million miles.
That is distance. Otherwise what do you mean?
2007-04-03 14:13:50 · answer #4 · answered by nick s 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋