hypothetically speaking of course...if i travel for one year at the speed of light..away from the earth...so it would actually be two light years...one going there and one coming back to earth...but how much time will have passed on Earth?
2007-04-29 14:01:40 · 6 answers · asked by Joseph 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Traveling outward for 1 Earth year as measured on Earth, then turning around and coming back at the same speed, (no matter what the speed is), simple math, 2 years have lapsed on Earth.
2007-04-29 14:56:50 · answer #1 · answered by Stratman 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Ok, this is where Einsteins theory's start making the head hurt. It all depends on where you are looking from (Your frame of reference) Assuming you are an observer on earth, if a vessel leaves at the speed of light and travels one year, turns around and comes back at the same speed then it will be 2 years from the point of view of the earthbound observer. However, if you were to look at the time on the clock of the ship, then basically no time would have elapsed. However, that assumes the ship was actually at full light speed. The effect of time dilation increases rapidly at velocities approaching the speed of light. Here are some examples. At a velocity of .8c the clock on the ship would read the voyage took 1.197 years. At a velocity of 0.99c (close but not quite the speed of light) the clock on the ship would read the voyage took only 0.285 years. At a velocity of 0.99999999995c the time clock on the ship would say the voyage took 0.0001 years.
2007-04-29 15:42:22 · answer #2 · answered by JimGeek 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you travel one light year out from Earth and back at the speed of light, a clock on Earth will say you were gone 2 years and a clock in your space ship would say you were gone 0 seconds. That is because time stops for things traveling at the speed of light. Of course, no material object can really travel as fast as light. Time would stop, mass would become infinite and distance would shrink to zero if it did.
2007-04-29 14:10:49 · answer #3 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
only two years if you travel constantly at the speed of light to and from included.
2007-04-29 14:07:40 · answer #4 · answered by t_nguyen62791 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can't travel for one year at the speed of light. If you could go that fast, time would stop for you so a year would never go by. Time would simply cease to exist for you.
2007-04-29 14:08:14 · answer #5 · answered by Joan H 6 · 1⤊ 3⤋
at 99.9999% the speed of light, abouut 230,000 years! There would really be little point to coming back to earth at all!
2007-04-29 14:14:04 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋