2007-07-15 04:53:17 · 19 answers · asked by RABBIE 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I don't bloody know.
2007-07-15 04:55:03 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, assuming Einstein's theory of special relativity is correct then for you time would seem to go on as normal however the distance between the destinations (ie in the direction you are travelling) will get smaller. However, time will go slower for you than a stationary observer at one of the destinations, so when you arrive at your destination you may have experienced about an hour but the people at your destination will have experienced a lot more time, perhaps a day (I won't bother actually working it out). A little note, I am of course assuming that your are travelling at nearly the speed of light because according Einstein matter cannot travel at the speed of light because it would require an infinite amount of energy.
2007-07-15 05:09:53 · answer #2 · answered by my quest 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you could travel at the speed of light, any trip would be instantaneous from your point of view. But to the outside universe, the trip still takes the time it takes for light to get where you're going. If you travel 1 light year, you arrive 1 year later. The good news is you have earned nearly 6 trillion frequent-flyer miles.
Of course, only light can travel at the speed of light. Anything with mass has to settle for some slower speed. And the closer you get to light-speed, the more absurd the amount of energy you need to accelerate more. So the question is rather moot.
2007-07-15 05:07:07 · answer #3 · answered by stork5100 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You'll have to forgive the science geek in me for this explaination.
Time is only relative to the viewer. Travelling at the speed of light slows time down for the traveller (does not reverse it). However to the outside observer time still carries on at the normal speed. So, while it only takes the traveller 1 year to cover the distance of 1 light year, to the outside observer it has taken him 10 years.
I did have a fantastic flash animation to demonstrate how this works and if I can find it again I will post it.
It is worth noting that this is all based on the fact that the speed of light is a constant, however, recent research suggests that the speed of light at the time of the big bang was faster than it is now.
2007-07-15 05:05:34 · answer #4 · answered by Colin Willson 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would look like it, but you will have moved, so you can't have arrived before you've departed. Also, since the cause of your arrival is your departure, to get there before you've even decided to would break the time-stream and you'd end up making a complete mess-up of temporal mechanics.
And this applies for any speed, not just superluminal speeds, because if you're travelling at all, then you're not in two places at once, you are moving through time and space. It would be different if you were trying to disappear and appear instantly in another location, because then you wouldn't be moving, everything else would be moving For you.
2007-07-15 12:01:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, that would mean you travelled back in time, which is impossible. If the destination was 1 light year away, it would still take you one year to reach it at the speed of light.
2007-07-15 04:58:05 · answer #6 · answered by boojum 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whatever speed one travels at one has to depart to arrive thus one cannot arrive before departing.
2007-07-17 22:47:18 · answer #7 · answered by billako 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. You would arrive at the SAME TIME that you departed. At least according to your own reference frame. Other people observing you would say it took longer.
Of course, you can only do this if you don't have any mass.
As a side note, this is one of the ways they proved that neutrinos have mass. They noticed that many neutrinos streaming from the sun undergo a change during the 8 minutes it takes them to get from the sun to the earth. Since they undergo a change, some time must be passing from the neutrino's point of view. Since time is passing, the neutrino must be going slower than c. Since it's going slower than c, it must have mass.
2007-07-15 05:07:58 · answer #8 · answered by RickB 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No. Light travels at around 186,000 miles per second, a high velocity. Light does not travel instantly, as it would seem. It would take a little time to make the journey, and you would arrive after you left relative to GMT.
2007-07-15 06:15:57 · answer #9 · answered by double E 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Nope.
Einsteins general theory of relativity suggests that mass.light and time are interchangeable.As our speed increases then so does the distortion of the space-time continuum.One upshot of this is the slowing of our time.All time being relative.
However,we can only slow our own time as individuals travelling at different speeds.This of course could have no bearing of events passed.
2007-07-15 05:00:11 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Does light arrive before it departs? I don't think so.
2007-07-15 05:03:03 · answer #11 · answered by Hi T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋