Live Stoner Chat Special Relativity

[Balarama]

If interested in relativity, I advice to follow this course by Leonard Susskind, one of my favorite physicists:

http://science-documentaries.com/?p=1144

Cheers!

 

[gradolabs]

p.s. what if someone scoffed at a particular swiss patent clerk back in the day?

"Hah! Nice hair, weirdo. Why don't you take you and your 'lifestyle' over to California where that shit belongs?"

"Um... okay. Seems this country is going to the birds anyway."

 

[DubV]

We can take this too another level Grado and go for multiverses and black hole travel if want to jump to different points in the universe. Much more efficient but as deadly as light speed travel for black hole jumping. Multiverse travel is very possible and relate directly to multiple dimensions. New theories consider people like Einstein and his thought experiments possibly came from traveling multi dimensionally to find his answer

 

[late]

p.s. what if someone scoffed at a particular swiss patent clerk back in the day?

A lot of physicists scoffed. There was only one physicist that appreciated his work, and saw to it
that it didn't get ignored. But even he didn't recognise what it meant.

You can play with math if you want, but here's the deal. In the news the other day there
was a story about how we found the most Earth-like planet yet. And only 600 light years
away. It also needs centuries of terraforming to make it habitable for us.

So I have the answer to your question, I just don't think you are going to like it.
But to respond in advance, think what someone 500 years ago would think about us?
To him, many of us have lives better than the kings had back then. Going to the Moon,
TV, internet, it would all seem somewhere between magic and god-like.

So perhaps this will be our future, hundreds of years from now...

 

[gradolabs]

Hi Grad,

My understanding is that time effect is only for the traveler, time for an observer would continue as normal. That being said you would want to travel as close to the speed of light as you could to minimize the amount of time that had passed for the observer (this would also minimize the time passed for the traveler).

Now if only you could do something about that pesky weight gain as you approach the speed of light so that you could actually do it!

I forgot about that. The weight gain... Maybe the threshold I imagine has less to do with time differentials and more to do with the complexities of near light speed travel. Anyway, I think this is an important discussion.

And thanks for the link to the documentary, Balarama. I love all the free educational stuff great universities like Stanford and MIT put out. Free graduate level lectures... all day long, I love it.

 

[sniper]

my understanding of time travel is once you hit 88mph you'll see some serious shit

 

[Dark Matter]

1.21 jiggawatts lol

But on a serious note.. wouldn't some sort of anti gravitational device help with the weight issue? Reverse gravity and it gives the opposite effect at the right time?

 

[gradolabs]

my understanding of time travel is once you hit 88mph you'll see some serious shit

That's funny as hell.

1.21 jiggawatts lol

But on a serious note.. wouldn't some sort of anti gravitational device help with the weight issue? Reverse gravity and it gives the opposite effect at the right time?

It's an increase in mass... regardless of gravity, you'd still have inertia. The amount of energy required to move any portion of your body would dramatically increase.

Glad I got you guys thinking though.

- - - Updated - - -

Also that earth like planetoid they found... probably one of a billion, but that's cool it's the closest. I dunno what the future holds for mankind, but I'm pretty sure there's someone or something zipping around the universe, discovering new stuff... witnessing awesome galactic events. Maybe we can link up and do something crazy. I'm game. I have the next few days off anyway.

 

[Dark Matter]

Heard about serpo.org?

 

[gradolabs]

A lot of physicists scoffed. There was only one physicist that appreciated his work, and saw to it
that it didn't get ignored. But even he didn't recognise what it meant.

You can play with math if you want, but here's the deal. In the news the other day there
was a story about how we found the most Earth-like planet yet. And only 600 light years
away. It also needs centuries of terraforming to make it habitable for us.

So I have the answer to your question, I just don't think you are going to like it.
But to respond in advance, think what someone 500 years ago would think about us?
To him, many of us have lives better than the kings had back then. Going to the Moon,
TV, internet, it would all seem somewhere between magic and god-like.

So perhaps this will be our future, hundreds of years from now...

Well, we could inoculate the planet right now... I'm sure there's some type of extremophile that could survive six centuries if properly stabilized in a custom built environment. Then once the rocket hits the planet it disperses seeds, fungi, bacteria and viruses. Then we follow and pick up the pieces. At least the planet would have a head start.

Speaking of head start, I only ask to satisfy my curiosity. I'm unable to utilize the information for its intended purpose (I hate to break it to you but I don't own a space ship). But I believe the future is already here. It's just not evenly distributed. And much like relativity itself, perception and perspective all depend on where you are. I'm still curious though... and if anything the spread of information is paramount to the survival of our species. Ignorance is like a vacuum and nature surely abhors both. ; ]