Text 28631, 42 rader
Skriven 2007-05-06 06:32:21 av John Hull (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 28623 av Mimi Gallandt (1:123/789.0)
Ärende: Muslems
===============
Mimi Gallandt -> VERN HUMPHREY wrote:
 MG> VERN HUMPHREY -> MIMI GALLANDT wrote:
 VH>>>> John, imagine we're going to the newly-discovered planet some 10
 VH>> light
 VH>>>> years away. At an acceleration rate of 1G, how long would it
 VH>> take us to
 VH>>>> get there?

 MG>>> Far, far longer than the average human life cycle. :(

 VH>> It would take over 58 years to reach light speed (if we could)
 MG> and just
 VH>> as long to decelerate from that speed so we could land.  A child
 MG> born
 VH>> just after takeoff would be 117 years old when he reached his
 VH>> destination -- assuming there was no period of travel at light speed
 VH>> between acceleration and decelerations

 MG> Which is longer than the average expected human life. Unless of course
 MG> Einstein had that relativity thing correct of course. (Keeping in mind
 MG> that I'm not a scientist)didn't his theory suppose that time passes at
 MG> a different rate the farther away from something (let's say Earth) one
 MG> gets? (or have I, as usual, got that whole thing fubar?)

You are talking about time dilation, and it has been proven.  If you have two
clocks, one at Cape Canaveral and one aboard a spaceship that are sychronized,
they will both read the same elapsed time at the start.  When the spaceship
takes off and accelerates, the two clocks begin to show different times.  For
travelers on the spaceship, time appears to be normal relative to their point
of reference because the clock is traveling at the same speed they are.  But
time is really slowing down for them relative to the clock at Cape Canaveral. 
A voyage that takes 100 years out and back, at near light speed for the ship on
its clock, takes several thousand years if you go by the clock on earth.  Every
human on earth would have lived and died several times over before the ship
returned. 
-- 
John
..
My Blog: Mad Gorilla's Jungle:      http://madgorilla.terapad.com/

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