speeding up time

OK, I hope you guys are still reaing this thread, cause I found something that might be the answer.

L=Lo/y where y=1/sqrroot of 1-v^2/c^2 and L= length dialation.

If im wrong and its the time dialation theory I should be looking for, please let me know.
Also, it appears that the light would actually shift to a form of radiation due to Vmax, so the Nebula would dissapear. But this brings another question, If every thing outside the craft dissapeared, would everything inside the craft dissapear also? It might go something like this. Everything you see would shift through the color spectrum untill the speed condensed the light to such a degree that it becomes radiation. At this point, every thing is black because there is no light, only radiation waves in the form of condensed light.

Any takers on this theory?



[edit on 10/17/04 by Kidfinger]

Originally posted by Kidfinger
You are an a spacecraft capable of obtaining the speed of light. You are going to travel from earth orbit to a distant nebula. You are able to observe the nebula in realtime as you travel from Earth to the nebula.
Question:
During the trip, while observing the nebula, would time appear to speed up?

That's a very interesting question.

According to the Special Theory of Relativity, time stops at the speed of light. Therefore, for the people onboard your imaginary spacecraft, time would appear still and they would reach the nebula instantly. Since its hypothetical, I'm assuming that the speed of light was reached as soon as you started the trip and the spacecraft was able to stop at the destination instantly, not taking the inertia into consideration.

Therefore, I think you(on spacecraft) will see just a single frame change of nebula, from the one you saw from the earth before the trip to the one when you reached there.

It is interesting that for the photons themselves, no time passes to reach us from a distant galaxy millions of light years away.

Reading: curious.astro.cornell.edu...

Things get more interesting at speeds closer to the speed of light, rather than at c.

Originally posted by Kidfinger
If im wrong and its the time dialation theory I should be looking for, please let me know.
Also, it appears that the light would actually shift to a form of radiation due to Vmax, so the Nebula would dissapear. But this brings another question, If every thing outside the craft dissapeared, would everything inside the craft dissapear also?

Both the length contraction and the time dilation affect the situation. You are right about the fact the you wouldn't see the nebula. It is because of the relativistic aberration effects (see below). As speeds approach the speed of light, light rays from all the directions, except from the one directly opposite to the direction of motion, would seem to concentrate at a single bright point directly in front of you.

"The first thing you will notice is that the light from objects directly ahead of you will become ever more blue shifted, while objects behind you will become redshifted. As the speed increases, the shifting will be so extreme that the light from the forward and rearward stars will be shifted completely out of the visible spectrum and they will appear to fade to black. But there is another kind of relativistic effect which causes an apparent displacement of the images as well. This is called relativistic aberration.

The relevant formula is:

Cos(Theta') = [ cos(Theta) + (V/c) ] / [ 1 + (V/c)cos(Theta) ]

where V is the velocity of the spaceship, Theta is the angle between the star and the direction of travel when the spacecraft is at rest, and Theta is the same angle measured when the spacecraft is in motion.
What happens is that as you look in the direction of travel, the star images shift to smaller angles, Theta, in the direction of travel. At 75 percent the speed of light, the stars that are 90 degrees from the direction of motion have now shifted to a position 41 degrees from the direction of motion in the sky. At even higher speeds, all of the stars in the forward hemisphere will shift to positions within a degree or less of the direction of travel. At ultra-relativistic speeds, all the stars will merge together into one 'star-like' object located directly ahead of you. Because of the Doppler effect, the light will become increasingly blue-shifted and the 'star' will appear blindingly white. Because the dominant source of radiation in the universe is in the cosmic background radiation, it is this blue-shifted light that will dominate what you see over the light from individual stars. In the opposite hemisphere, a large dark spot will appear opposite your direction of travel, and will expand in size to engulf the entire hemisphere.
Source: www.astronomycafe.net...

Here is an illustration:

external imageexternal image
fig1:When looking down, the camera sees the tiled plane as a square grid
fig2:However, if the camera moves rapidly down, special relativity dictates that light subtends a lesser angle with the direction of motion. Consequently, the horizon, previously a great circle, becomes a smaller circle in front of the camera, and as the light 'bunches' ahead, the tiles appear brighter. Doppler shifting also changes the colour of the tiles.

Source: www.anu.edu.au...

For futher explanation, supporting equations, and animations, here is the webpage:
VISUALIZING SPECIAL RELATIVITY
www.anu.edu.au...

Edit: link fixed

[edit on 18-10-2004 by jp1111]

Thanks jp1111,

That was very informative. This is starting to make some sense now.
Ive been reading some of the links you provided, though I havent finished yet, I do intend to. Thanks agian

I read that if you stand still time goes slower but if you use a lot of movement time goes faster at least it seems like that for the individual im notsaying that if we all started jumping at he same time it would be 10000AD

You R All Wrong Except For Diehard_Democrat!!!! First of all if the nebula is lets say 10,000 light years away u would be ashes by the time u reached it!!!!!! You age faster if ur going at the speed of light!!!!!!! So if its going to take u 10,000 light years to get to that nebula u will die before reaching it!!!

And you know this information because what? You've traveled at the speed of light before? These are all interesting theories as to what happens. Until someone actually performs this experiment, you can't state that any of them are wrong. For now we'll just say that everyone has some good ideas as to what happens at the speed of light.

Originally posted by portfreezer
You R All Wrong Except For Diehard_Democrat!!!! First of all if the nebula is lets say 10,000 light years away u would be ashes by the time u reached it!!!!!! You age faster if ur going at the speed of light!!!!!!! So if its going to take u 10,000 light years to get to that nebula u will die before reaching it!!!

Actually, The question was how would the light be observed. NOT would you live through the flight. Please, if you have a theory about my original question, support it with a formula, or at least an explaination that doesnt sound like its coming out of a 13 year olds mouth. Thanks.

For Your Information I am 13!!!! So w/e

And, to add to portfreezer's post, I'm only 14.

What's really fun to do is go onto forums, write in a very complex manor, then at the end when they all think you're another adult just on the forum, I pull the trigger and it's like they're in shock. They can't believe that I'm really 14, and acted that smart for that long. If you want to see something really amazing, check out that "New member with interesting situation", page 10, most recent post.

Plus, that's one of the best topics ever posted on ATS, and if you haven't read that by now, you should.

Now, a post actually about the thread:

If you were to travel to somewhere 10,000 light years away, going at the speed of light, you'd get there in 10,000 years. Who do you know lives to be 10,000 years, dbates? Though ashes no, but dead, yes.

And time would appear to speed up, you skeptics.

Now let me explain the above statement:

There is a wind of 5 miles per hour. If you travel against the wind, it will feel like 10 miles per hour. But, on the other hand, if you traveled away from the wind at 5 miles per hour, you would feel no wind at all. Same with light!

Unless you accidentally get to close to a black hole, time would appear to speed up.

[edit on 10/22/04 by diehard_democrat]

The analogy of airspeed vs ground speed is an interesting one, however it does not do justice to realtivistic effects. No I am not an expert in relativity, but I have had a course in it, and I will try to remember to dig into my library when I get home and post some actual equations instead of looking on the net for who-knows-what.

No, time does not stop for a space traveler. It remains on as normal in his reference frame (the ship). It is how he perceives the other frame (the inertial frame of the universe) and how others in the universe perceive him, that changes.

No, time does not stop for a space traveler. It remains on as normal in his reference frame (the ship). It is how he perceives the other frame (the inertial frame of the universe) and how others in the universe perceive him, that changes.

I've already said that, in a way, when I was talking about the "frequencies" of time and perception, though I must admit you have a very artistic way of putting it.

LMAO GOOD 1 MIKE GOOD WAY OF PUTTING IT