Tag Info

Hot answers tagged relativity

Accepted

Does my shipboard computer slow down as I approach light speed?

This is a pretty interesting topic, and one of the things that makes special relativity so mind blowing. But the answer is: From your perspective on board the ship, the computer will function just as ...
• 3,343
Accepted

Can a super computer be built using time dilation?

Yes, But You're Not Going To Like It Time dilation is all down to frame of reference. So, if you don't want everyone on Earth to age during the computation, you just have to take Earth with you. You ...
• 23.7k

Standardisation of Time in a FTL Universe

Is there a theoretical method of inferring a "universal" time that FTL travellers can use for their clocks to maintain a constant time? Generally, no. There is no universal time, period. Relativity ...
• 1,893
Accepted

A weapon(preferably hard scifi) that will limit velocity of space ships in a wide region temporarily

The only answer I can think of that doesn't require warping the laws of physics or a ridiculously huge energy budget is: Tugmines Basically ridiculously powerful engines fastened to mildly ...
• 65.4k

Does my shipboard computer slow down as I approach light speed?

Approach the speed of light with respect to what? Right now there is an electron flying around in a synchrotron somewhere which is moving at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light with respect ...
• 74.4k
Accepted

Reasons for time dilation to happen on a habitable planet with same g force and not orbiting a black hole

Time dilation comes from gravity and/or velocity. Since the planet is not orbiting a black hole it would either have to orbit another super heavy mass or fly through space with a lorentz factor of 0....
• 6,829

A weapon(preferably hard scifi) that will limit velocity of space ships in a wide region temporarily

In hard sci-fi we have nothing - since we don't have FTL or anything approaching it then it's impossible to do anything beyond pure speculation in terms of anti-FTL. My suggestion would be some sort ...
• 76.1k

Can you build a relativistic clock?

No. In General (and indeed Special) Relativity, there is actually no such thing as "the time on Earth" from the point of view of a distant observer. There is also no such thing as "the place it was ...
• 339

How to make FTL-technology an narratively interesting suicide-pact-technology?

The final great filter Any civilisation that attempts FTL causality breaking will very quickly twig that it can be used for all sorts of shenanigans. This means the any race brave (or foolish) enough ...
• 65.4k
Accepted

Standardisation of Time in a FTL Universe

Triangulation from X-ray Pulsars Timing and navigation are inextricably linked. The mechanical clock enabled the first calculation of longitude. GPS navigation depends on comparing arrival times (and ...
• 84.3k
Accepted

• 97.5k

Can you build a relativistic clock?

Yes. Though it's not immune, it's just informed. Luckily you have no limit on complexity or size, because it's not going to be simple or small. This isn't any kind of shielding, the time is simply ...
• 48k

Standardisation of Time in a FTL Universe

Let's pretend the whole universe uses Earth years, days, etc., for the sake of this example. However, any universal system would work for this. Before the ship begins to travel, it decides that your ...
• 20.4k

Relativistic effects on brains encoded in light

This has nothing to do with speed of light and, indeed, with any possible means of transmission. You are effectively "backing-up to storage" whatever you need to transmit and then "recreate a perfect ...
• 17.1k
Accepted

At 1.5 g of constant acceleration, how long does it take to get to 0.93c?

There are online calculators which exactly answer your question. When I input your parameters into the one I linked, I get acceleration time: 1.07 years in ship time, 1.6 years in earth time
• 241k

Could a universe with a reverse of the relativity of our universe be self consistent?

You are speaking about a spacetime geometry where the shortest path between two points will result in longer proper time of the traveller - in other words, unlike our Minkowski geometry, the universe ...
• 12.9k

Can a spaceship traveling close to light speed be knocked off course by a gamma ray burst?

Let's first do some math, the first part taken from this pdf regarding (solar) radiation pressure (the formulas should be applicable from any source of electromagnetic radiation). The intensity $I$ ...
• 97.5k
Accepted

What if a traversable wormhole hits the earth?

Everything dies. In fact, everything dies in a manner much more spectacular than if you had crashed the moon against Earth. Or Venus. Or even Saturn. The physics and mathematics behind this are ...

Could special relativity be caused by aliens jamming the Solar System?

The Copernican principle As L.Dutch pointed out, this would violate the Copernican principle, which essentially states that there's nothing special about observing the universe from any one place. ...
• 97.5k

Would a hypervelocity laser "HEAT" round work?

What if you strapped a big flashlight to the front of a hypervelocity round traveling infinitely close to the speed of light? If I read that post correctly, all the light produced in-transit would ...

What would be the equation for kinetic energy if $γ=\frac{v^2}{c^2}+1$ instead of $γ=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$?

Let's start with the energy-momentum equation: $$E^2=p^2c^2+(m_0c^2)^2\tag{1}$$ This can be derived according to the Minkowski metric. This works because the inner product of the four-momentum, \$\...
• 97.5k
Accepted

Practical problems of near-light-speed travel

Travelling at near-light speed is indistinguishable from being at rest. This is the principle of Galilean relativity, and is preserved under special relativity: there is no feasible experiment to ...

Does my shipboard computer slow down as I approach light speed?

From all of the answers and the comments therein, I think the issue is simply a lack of understanding of relativity, so this answer is mostly just going to be a primer in how to think about it. I am ...
• 129k

Could near light speed ship dilate time severely enough to explore other stars with out breaking the light speed barrier?

Wow that's a whole lot of question marks, I'm going to give you the Larry Niven special on 1G travel times. This comes straight out of the essay Bigger Than Worlds which I thoroughly recommend to any ...
• 44.3k
Accepted

Physics of magically enhanced travel

Change how you think about gravity. It's common to think that you generate a gravity well, and then that gravity distorts spacetime. But that's not the case. Mass distorts spacetime, and that ...
• 34.2k

A weapon(preferably hard scifi) that will limit velocity of space ships in a wide region temporarily

Chaff Since few spaceships are likely to be steered manually, chances are they've got instruments and RADAR/LIDAR style sensors so they can tell what speed it is safe to fly at. At high speeds, even ...
• 331