Ok, we know that as you approach the speed of light, your mass increases, and we also know that mass bends space, causing other objects to be "pushed" towards each other.
So my question is, If I am in a spaceship moving very close to the speed of light, and the mass of the ship and all of it's contents are approaching infinity, wouldn't the gravity that these masses produce also approach infinity? If so then wouldn't the ship collapse upon itself and get crushed by it's own gravity? At some point in velocity, your ship may have so much mass that the whole thing becomes a travelling black hole.
Am I even close with these ideas?
2007-04-25 18:02:17 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The principle of relativity states that all reference frames are equivalent as far as the law of physics is concerned. In the reference frame of the ship, the ship is at rest. This means that there is no change in the ship's velocity as seen from the ship's reference frame and no change in its gravitation on itself.
2007-04-25 19:00:26 · answer #1 · answered by Biznachos 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
That's a good question, but even it acquired enough gravity to crush itself, it wouldn't become a black hole because it would stop accelerating once it crushed. The event horizon of a black hole is equivalent to mass trying to exhilarate at the speed of light which can't be done. That's why it collapses into a singularity with unknown characteristics. A spaceship could never carry enough fuel to create the almost infinite amount of energy it would take to travel at almost the speed of light./////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// To Biznacho. The ship is still the only object feeling the acceleration, so it is actually becoming more massive.
2007-04-25 18:54:44 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Basically you got it. All of those quantities are asymptotic approaching infinity. If you think about how much energy it would take to turn into a black hole it is almost silly.
As velocity approaches infinity the energy required to accelerate does as well and of course energy and mass are the same thing so mass also approaches infinity which would create lots and lots of gravity causing it to collapse on itself.
Impossible to comprehend however
2007-04-25 18:40:48 · answer #3 · answered by nkarasch 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Interesting point but it's the APPARENT mass not the actual mass and its only related to the force trying to accelerate your ship. I hope.(That would make things even MORE dfficult to resolve ;)
2007-04-25 18:16:54 · answer #4 · answered by Daniel H 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Biznachos has it right.
2007-04-25 19:24:34 · answer #5 · answered by gp4rts 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋