If I am travelling North - South at about the speed of light, and somebody else is approaching me South - North also at about the speed of light, what is our converging speed? And how do you derive it?
2007-10-08 02:23:19 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Your converging speed is still the speed of light due to the time dilation at the speed of light. You can't just simply add to get twice the speed of light as this is impossible. There also needs to be an observer watching because in space with no refrences are you moving or is he, it is only possible for a stationary observer to tell and depending where he is in relation to you's when you get to him it will be more than likely your clocks don't agree if they did at the start. It is all very complicated but there are equations to prove time dilation and other anomalies. Ideally the observer should be an equal distance from both of you's, when you get to him if you's were both 5 light min away, you would get to him in 5min. Both of you's travelled a distance of 10 light min in 5min but it is divided between you's, there is no such thing as traveling 2c.
2007-10-08 02:37:54 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Here is my hypothetical answer::
As the surface of the earth(having the shape of a squeezed sphere) is curved, the relative speed of the two persons will vary at different points along a north-south line. This is because if both start from extreme ends, one from North pole and the other from South pole, they will meet at an angle slightly less than 90 degrees at a speed close to 1.5 times the speed of light, the meeting point being far out in outer space,due to earth's curvature and also because both bodies at such a tremendous speed would travel in a straight line. If the two bodies start at points closer to each other, say near the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the angles and speeds at which they meet will vary. The relative speed when starting and meeting near the equator is likely to be almost two times the speed of light, and the angle of meeting being about almost 180 degrees.
A clever and interesting 'trick'question to ask how to obtain a relative speed that is greater than the speed of light!! I have not ever thought of that!!
2007-10-08 03:21:38 · answer #2 · answered by Dolphin-Bird Lover8-88 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The speed of light. Relativity gets weird around the speed of light. Same problem as driving in a truck going the speed of light and throwing a baseball, or turning on the headlights.
2007-10-08 02:34:18 · answer #3 · answered by brainiac5 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can't travel at the speed of light.
But supposing that, as seen by someone on the side of the road, you and your friend were travelling at nearly c. As observed by that person, your converging speed is obviously nearly 2c.
As measured by you or your friend, the converging speed (really, the speed of the other vehicle) is nearly c, but more nearly c than the road's speed past you as measured on your speedometer.
To add speeds together, such as the speed of the road and the speed of the other car, you use v = (v1 + v2) / (1+v1*v2/c^2). This equation is derived from the basic principle of relativity and the invarience of the speed of light.
2007-10-08 02:35:03 · answer #4 · answered by ZikZak 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Simply the answer is c, the speed of light. Newtonian mechanics does not hold up as you approach the speed of light - 2 c is not correct. This is the fundamental tenet of the theory if relativity.
2007-10-08 06:01:05 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The speed of light is limited by the fourth dimension, which is time.
It is therefor impossible to travel any faster than the speed of light (or at the speed at all) without disrupting the space/time continuum.
2007-10-08 05:52:02 · answer #6 · answered by Merovingian 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Wot's the big rush Jon, trying to get to your last eleventy-first birthday party before Gandalf ???
The answer is that once we get back to such things even being an issue we will have re-discovered that when we wish to get around really fast, i.e. something quicker than the Monday morning 8:00 am M25 velocity, we will do it in Quantum Fields, where 'Time/Space' doesn't exist and it even defies the Beverley Hills real estate brokers 'Laws of Location, Location, Location' !
Which will involve nothing more complicated than a quick slurp of Keemun while popping out of this dimension and popping back in just in front of the Gates of Moria, or Smaugs lair in the Lonely Mountain, or .... even Bag End !
No biggy, just probability waves. ;-)))
{{{{{{Cosmic C}}}}}}
2007-10-08 10:13:42 · answer #7 · answered by cosmicvoyager 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
not a limiteless volume yet identity say a reliable few gentle years take the cost of light 3.0x10^8 multiply via 60 for each 2d in a minute then via 5 and divide via 6 million and thats what proportion gentle years have surpassed for the observer
2016-10-06 07:32:51 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
2c
Unless this is more complicated than I think it is, which I don't think it is.
2007-10-08 02:33:30 · answer #9 · answered by Ilya S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋