Physics question

[pecksniff]

There was a young lady named Bright
Who traveled far faster than light
She set out one day
In a relative way
And returned home the previous night

Why is that? That's one thing I've never understood about the theory of relativity -- why does FTL travel equate to time travel?

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Time runs more slowly in accelerated reference frames. Clocks at the top of high mountains tick faster than clocks at sea level, because they’re experiencing less acceleration from gravity.

So it’s not traveling near the speed of light that makes time slow down, it’s the acceleration you have to experience in order to do it. Particularly, if you go away and turn around to come back.

The joke is that traveling faster than the speed of light requires infinite acceleration so time slows down so much it goes backwards.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Plot a graph. X axis is space (distance) and Y axis is time. Light travels at 45*. If you're traveling faster than light, your relationship on the graph is a line plotted closer to the X axis. You go more distance in less time, so "time" slows. The faster you go, the more it slows.


Relatively.


Over 80 MPH around here will get you a mandatory reckless driving citation, so it's not worth it anyway.

 

[Saint_Ann]

You know how the pitch of a horn seems to lower as a train speeds by?

It has nothing to do with that.

 

[Sean]

You can't go back in time, the second law of thermodynamics forbids it. As you approach c, though, you appear to move through time slower to an observer outside that frame of reference.

 

[rockcasbah]

Try telling that to Marty McFly.

 

[SelfTawt]

I believe the answer may be in unifying Wave particle duality and particle super symmetry.. Potentially exposing the nature of that which is commonly termed “Dark matter”…
Until then, yeah its flux capacitor time…. Or possibly Van der Graaf generator and Tesla coil time…;-)

 

[oggbashan]

Just fly Westwards in a fast jet. You can arrive at a time earlier than your departure time.

But that is because of time zones.

Or cross the International date line. You can gain, or lose, a day.

 

[iso36]

Now that members of families live at greater distances from each other than in the past, the theory of relativity and time travel have been proven.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Sciency shit makes my head hurt

 

[JohnnySavage]

If we are using those telescopes to look back in time to light that left its point of origin near the point of the big bang... how did we get out here before the light did?

 

[JohnnySavage]

Years ago I sent an email to S Hawkins and ask that question. Some underling of his replied with some nonsense.