On the other day I came up with this strange thought: Let's assume there is a space station A. Then we have a spaca ship B moving almost with the speed of light. According to the time dilation, the crew on board will grow old slower, right? Now let's assume that the space ship B is almost endless, and there is a racing hoover vehicle thingy C on board. The racing hoover vehicle thingy moves also almost with the speed of light.

Now: what if the C races on board directly to the another direction where the ship is moving? It's now staying still if looked from the station A, but moving pretty damn fast when seen from the ship B. What is the state of the driver of this racing hoover vehicle thingy? How does his time "pass"?

He grows older at the same speed as the people on A, but slower than the people on B?

Your post is interesting but how do you propose to observe this? What you've written is not clear enough as to what conditions the observation occurs. It is possible from certain observation points to observe an object going faster than light. But that is only for that observer. It only "appears" to be traveling faster than light. Of course there is the point that perhaps it is really going faster than light because it is observed going faster than light. Everything appears to have some sort of "memory". Particle movement in space is not understood very well as yet in amny aspects. AND space is not empty either.

I guess I wasn't being as clear as I could have been..

So here's the thing again, presented with great text graphics:

O

I-------I ->
I <-o I ->
I-------I ->

So the O is the space station A, That big thingy is the space ship moving to the direction of those arrows and finally that small o is the hoover racer.

So, observed from the space ship:
Racer moves very fast (almost c),
but, as seen from the station (O) the racer is staying steady.

this is a contradiction in itself...

Einstein also claims that no object can accelerate to a speed faster than light. Or at the least his theories prove that nothing can.

You imagine the "ship" traveling at near speed of light. Then within that ship another vessel traveling near speed of light in the controlled environment of the "ship".

Imagine if the "ship" was transparent. What would you see? Your image says you would see an object moving faster than light. So you'd see nothing..?

Two issues to settle:

First I imagine, like in a car when you are accelerating there is force against you, would not that force in a "ship" traveling at light speed be so large it made the travel of the "craft" within impossible. Though I know my reasoning is flawed since the "ship" isn't nessicarily accelerating. But my point is: Could such a situation be possible? Could the vessel within attain any speed what-so-ever in the "ship"?

Second, Einstein�s theory is only subject to "inertial reference frames" which I don't believe a "ship" traveling at near light speed is. So while the passengers in the "ship" (B) would be subject to the time dilation, the passengers in the vessel within (C) would not feel an "extra" amount of time dilation (which in itself can't even be said) only the amount that passengers in the "ship" (B) would. Since time dilation does not take place in reference frames that Newton�s laws are not relevant.

Yeah, this is a great "I think..."

But my answer is that the passengers in the vessel with in the ship would feel the same effect of time as those stationary in the ship... that is if such a situation is possible, which I doubt.

cntr,

quote:

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Originally posted by cntrdcton0fate:
Einstein also claims that no object can accelerate to a speed faster than light. Or at the least his theories prove that nothing can.

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The characteristic blue glow seen in the cooling water for nuclear reactors is caused by the shock wave of particles traveling at greater than the speed of light.

That's the difference between theory and practice.

Nox

[This message has been edited by Nox (edited 06-06-2002).]

whatever happened to the square root of(1-v�/c�)