Timeline for Does my shipboard computer slow down as I approach light speed?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 13, 2018 at 0:05 | comment | added | fishinear | From the point of view of the ship, the ship is stationary and the Earth is moving. That is, from the point of the ship, the computers on Earth are running slow. The situation is completely symmetric. I did not do the math, but it could very well be that from the point of view of Earth, the gun at Earth will shoot first, while from the point of view of the ship, the gun on the ship will shoot first. And they are both correct. "simultaneous", and "first", and "last" is relative in Relativity, it depends on your viewpoint. | |
| Mar 11, 2018 at 17:14 | history | edited | slOOP | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 750 characters in body
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| Mar 11, 2018 at 16:31 | comment | added | slOOP | From the answer with the most votes: "However, from the outside perspective of a "stationary" observer, your computer would indeed be running slower " "First" is very meaningful here and very applicable to real world and sci-fi stories. The computer at relativistic speeds has a clock that ticks slower so it calculates slower so it fires the lasers later. If earth and the ship are close enough together Earth could hit the ship before the ship fires and ship would think "Oh my god how did they target us so fast". The answers obscure this to the point where a writer might get it wrong. | |
| Mar 11, 2018 at 3:12 | comment | added | npostavs | "I would love more information." - check the other answers then? AFAIU "at the same time" and "first" are not really meaningful for cases involving relativistic speeds. | |
| Mar 10, 2018 at 16:41 | comment | added | slOOP | I would love more information. If an earth based turret and a ship based turret going 0.95c start targeting each other at the same time they will both get a firing solution and shoot at the same time? My understanding is that the earth base one would shoot first. I understand the energy parasite thinking isn't technically accurate but I thought it was a good metaphor for a writer. | |
| Mar 10, 2018 at 0:29 | comment | added | Beanluc | It's not only not right, it's what Wolfgang Pauli called "not even wrong". | |
| Mar 10, 2018 at 0:04 | comment | added | slOOP | Can someone comment on why this was down voted? | |
| Mar 9, 2018 at 1:32 | history | answered | slOOP | CC BY-SA 3.0 |