Thought Experiment: Speed of light vs perception of time

Let's say we have two planets. Planet A and Planet B. They're 100 light years apart.

Now, lets say we've got a special spaceship that allows us to perceive time faster. This would make the rest of the universe appear to slow down or freeze in place. But the speed of light is constant, right?. So we're still 100 LY away from Planet B. This would mean that while it could take us 100 years to get there (relative to us), hardly a second may have passed for those not inside the "time-ship".

This creates a discrepency between observers. So either:
A: The speed of light changes along with perception of time.
B: The act of perceiving time faster would shrink you down, and things would become more distant. Instead of 100LY you may find your destination become 1000LY away.
C: ???


Thought experiment #2:

Assuming you could move around the universe unobstructed by any speed, would you see things move in reverse as you move away from them, and see them move faster as you moved closer?

Originally posted by Kruel
Let's say we have two planets. Planet A and Planet B. They're 100 light years apart.

Now, lets say we've got a special spaceship that allows us to perceive time faster. This would make the rest of the universe appear to slow down or freeze in place. But the speed of light is constant, right?. So we're still 100 LY away from Planet B. This would mean that while it could take us 100 years to get there (relative to us), hardly a second may have passed for those not inside the "time-ship".

This creates a discrepency between observers. So either:
A: The speed of light changes along with perception of time.
B: The act of perceiving time faster would shrink you down, and things would become more distant. Instead of 100LY you may find your destination become 1000LY away.
C: ???

What up, Kruel!

I usually picture distances like this as stationary states, set up to create the appearance of motion.

If the spaceship allows us to perceive time as moving "faster", then it must mean that we have increased speeds to such a degree that we percieve distance as "shorter".

We could theoretically move that fast, and from what I understand the effects would be relative to the point of observation:

If within the time and space ship, and traveling close to the speed of light, distance crossed will appear to take less time. Things outside the ship would not stand still, they would just appear to be doing so as you traveled past them. I believe this is because there is no oppurtunity for you to notice the object as having it's own motion, as you pass it by and dust it in a matter of moments.

For those outside the ship, I doubt they would even be aware of your presence, depending on the design of the ship. It may be that when traveling close to or at the speed of light the physical ship is no longer capable of holding the form "ship". It may also be that the ship itself could be contained in a type of field, that would have to manifest from a quantum level, that may keep the ship intact on it's journey. I'd like to know what would happen if a solid bit of matter impacted someone at that speed, lol. But I believe the reason we only observe light as having the properties of light is because in order to exhibit the traits of light, one must be light. So, ship may not be perceptible as a ship when moving at that speed.

But as far as we know, the speed of light doesn't change in a vacuum. And I don't believe that we can percieve "time" faster, only distance.. if that makes sense. Time is a constant perception IMO, caused by space and the distance between any given objects. So we would not percieve anything as occurring faster aside from our distance covered. Much like, you're in a car and traveling at 60 mph, rather than 20. Traveling at sixty will take less time, but the perception of that time is not changed. By the same token, I'd think that even when traveling at or near the speed of light the perception of time would remain the same, it would just take less of that time to accomplish whatever the goal of traveling that fast would be.

Originally posted by Kruel
Thought experiment #2:

Assuming you could move around the universe unobstructed by any speed, would you see things move in reverse as you move away from them, and see them move faster as you moved closer?

Say you're traveling at the speed of light (current max observed speed). The only thing I can imagine as being faster would be thought, but that, from my perspective, seems to be instantaneous, so... Probably would not notice anything as moving away, toward, fast or slow in that speed. Speed of thought, to me seems to be, omnipresence.

But assuming travel at the speed of light... If your eyes are indeed capable of receiving light while moving at that speed, and your brain is powerful enough to interpret that light, things you're coming up on will appear to be coming closer where as things you're leaving would appear to be moving away. Of course, this is all perspective. The planet is doing it's thing and you're doing yours.. But I don't imagine the laws change the faster you travel. Light is a physical manifestation, and is so bound by the laws of physics to the same extent as anything else we're aware of. If travelling at that speed and capable of interpreting the data (incoming light to the eyes) I'd imagine it to be similar to the experiences we already have moving towards, or away, from objects.. Just alot quicker lol.

You got some interesting thoughts, yo. Lemme know what you think!



and an edit, just for referrence: I am in no way trained in physics, so..

[edit on 20-8-2008 by Taj Mikel]

reply to post by Kruel

Re Thought Experiment #1
Check out en.wikipedia.org... . Its sort of related and might give you a better idea of whats happening. Read about the ideas of length and time contraction (due to Lorentz Transforms)

Re Thought Experiment #2
In the hypothetical situation where you could move around faster than light. Moving away from things, you'd see it go 'backwards in time' as you would be seeing vision/photos that are older the further away you move. Likewise moving into something faster that light, you'd see it speed up.

Originally posted by science lol
reply to post by Kruel

 

Re Thought Experiment #1
Check out en.wikipedia.org... . Its sort of related and might give you a better idea of whats happening. Read about the ideas of length and time contraction (due to Lorentz Transforms)

Re Thought Experiment #2
In the hypothetical situation where you could move around faster than light. Moving away from things, you'd see it go 'backwards in time' as you would be seeing vision/photos that are older the further away you move. Likewise moving into something faster that light, you'd see it speed up.

"Time dilation is the phenomenon whereby an observer finds that another's clock, which is physically identical to their own, is ticking at a slower rate as measured by their own clock. This is often interpreted as time "slowing down" for the other clock, but that is only true in the context of the observer's frame of reference. Locally (i.e., from the perspective of any observer within the same frame of reference, without reference to another frame of reference), time always passes at the same rate." Time Dialation

Can also check out "The spacetime geometry of velocity time dilation" in Wikipedia for more info on the relativity of time dialation.


And "If one were able to move information or matter from one point to another faster than light, then according to special relativity, there would be some inertial frame of reference in which the signal or object was moving backwards in time. This is a consequence of the relativity of simultaneity in special relativity, which says that in some cases different reference frames will disagree on whether two events at different locations happened "at the same time" or not, and they can also disagree on the order of the two events (technically, these disagreements occur when spacetime interval between the events is 'space-like', meaning that neither event lies in the future light cone of the other).[16] If one of the two events represents the sending of a signal from one location and the second event represents the reception of the same signal at another location, then as long as the signal is moving at the speed of light or slower, the mathematics of simultaneity ensures that all reference frames agree that the transmission-event happened before the reception-event.[16] However, in the case of a hypothetical signal moving faster than light, there would always be some frames in which the signal was received before it was sent, so that the signal could be said to have moved backwards in time. And since one of the two fundamental postulates of special relativity says that the laws of physics should work the same way in every inertial frame, then if it is possible for signals to move backwards in time in any one frame, it must be possible in all frames. This means that if observer A sends a signal to observer B which moves FTL (faster than light) in A's frame but backwards in time in B's frame, and then B sends a reply which moves FTL in B's frame but backwards in time in A's frame, it could work out that A receives the reply before sending the original signal, a clear violation of causality in every frame." Time Travel


I wouldn't call this time travel, I'd call it a loop hole. It's a misconception. But never, at any point, would the data or individual in question ever move backwards "in time", it would just appear as though event a occured after event b, where b would be thought to have been caused by a. In truth, b was caused by a, and after a had occurred, but would appear as though b occurred prior to a. Just perspective and relativity.