Speed is distance divided by time, right? Step inside to be mindfukked.

[Dooby]

You're in a car travelling at 50 miles an hour.

Ahead of you, you see a car approaching you at 60 miles an hour.

The cars are speeding towards each other at 110 miles per hour.

Easy said and done, right?

Well what about this.

You're in a spaceship travelling at 3/4 the speed of light.

There's another spaceship travelling towards you at 2/4 the speed of light.

The speed they are approaching one another is greater than the speed of light.

Let's say the distance between them is one light year. That means they'd meet each other 20 percent faster than light would!

But it is said nothing with mass can travel faster than the speed of light?

Discuss

 

[Megatron Island]

Lorentz transformation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[NZA]

im no physics major, but i never heard of a car picking up the speed of on-coming traffic.

 

[stealthbomber]

Lorentz transformation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

thats nice, what does it mean

the ships themselves arent moving faster than the speed of light so i dont see the paradox

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

THE DISTANCE IS BEING CLOSED AT A RATE QUICKER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT BUT NO OBJECT IN THIS SCENARIO IS EXCEEDING THAT BENCHMARK, BROTHER!

IMAGINE, IF YOU WILL MEAN GENE, THAT YOU HAVE BOUNCED OFF THE ROPES ON ONE SIDE OF THE RING! YOUR OPPONENT, FOR EXAMPLE, DAN SPIVEY, HAS BOUNCED OFF THE ROPES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RING! YOU ARE APPROACHING EACH OTHER AT A RATE THAT IS THE SUM OF BOTH OF YOUR VELOCITIES, MAN! BUT THIS FACT DOES NOT ENGENDER ANY ADDITIONAL ACCELERATION FOR EITHER COMPETITOR, BROTHER!

 

[Scott Steiner]

THE DISTANCE IS BEING CLOSED AT A RATE QUICKER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT BUT NO OBJECT IN THIS SCENARIO IS EXCEEDING THAT BENCHMARK, BROTHER!

IMAGINE, IF YOU WILL MEAN GENE, THAT YOU HAVE BOUNCED OFF THE ROPES ON ONE SIDE OF THE RING! YOUR OPPONENT, FOR EXAMPLE, DAN SPIVEY, HAS BOUNCED OFF THE ROPES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RING! YOU ARE APPROACHING EACH OTHER AT A RATE THAT IS THE SUM OF BOTH OF YOUR VELOCITIES, MAN! BUT THIS FACT DOES NOT ENGENDER ANY ADDITIONAL ACCELERATION FOR EITHER COMPETITOR, BROTHER!

Hokan you old baster! This retarded analogim is insuffishen to explain issues of relatividy and fasser than ligh travel! Yer out of yer league! Juss like when trying to compete with the Big Bad Booty Daddy for freaks! And my peaks are bigger than your pythoms!

 

[atlbound]

from a physics thread to wrasslin beef

from sean carter to jayz

 

[Chief]

Your theory is bullshyt

 

[Dooby]

THE DISTANCE IS BEING CLOSED AT A RATE QUICKER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT BUT NO OBJECT IN THIS SCENARIO IS EXCEEDING THAT BENCHMARK, BROTHER!

IMAGINE, IF YOU WILL MEAN GENE, THAT YOU HAVE BOUNCED OFF THE ROPES ON ONE SIDE OF THE RING! YOUR OPPONENT, FOR EXAMPLE, DAN SPIVEY, HAS BOUNCED OFF THE ROPES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RING! YOU ARE APPROACHING EACH OTHER AT A RATE THAT IS THE SUM OF BOTH OF YOUR VELOCITIES, MAN! BUT THIS FACT DOES NOT ENGENDER ANY ADDITIONAL ACCELERATION FOR EITHER COMPETITOR, BROTHER!

relative to the spaceship you're in the person is approaching you faster than light how would that look

And the distance being covered, relative to you, in such a time period would give you the feeling they're approaching you faster than light.

Just look at the equation itself and break it down. You'll see what I'm getting at.

 

[AV Dicey]

from a physics thread to wrasslin beef

from sean carter to jayz

thread needs to go to the rafters on g.p.
physics to wrasslin to hiphop!

 

[Type Username Here]

relative to the spaceship you're in the person is approaching you faster than light how would that look

And the distance being covered, relative to you, in such a time period would give you the feeling they're approaching you faster than light.

Just look at the equation itself and break it down. You'll see what I'm getting at.

I like your thinking Dooby. This is how science is supposed to work. Asking questions.

But you're just neglecting a lot of things. At no time, do any of the two ships travel faster than the speed of light. They only thing that might be compromised in this entire thought experiment of yours might be vision/perception of the observers inside the spaceship.

 

[theworldismine13]

I'm not gonna front like i got the math down pat, but the basic idea is that space has 4 component dimensions (x,y,z,t) and the components of the vector of an object has to add up to the speed of light

So in your example the ships should see each other going at 1/4 faster then the speed of light, but they don't, they will see each other going at the speed of light, so where does the 1/4 go? it goes into the other dimensions

since the objects cannot go faster than the speed of light the dimension in the direction of travel will start changing and the time dimension will start changing, what that means is that for example the other ship will seem longer and time will speed up or slow down

that is what the Lorentz transformation is about, it explains how the supposedly extra 1/4 speed of light goes into other dimensions

Edit: I had to change my response, the Lorentz transformation only applies to the direction of travel (x direction) and time, I had mistakenly said it applies to y and z

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

if you traveled from the earth to mars going faster than the speed of light, you'd theoretically make it in time to look back and see yourself leaving earth

 

[theworldismine13]

And naw, you will not perceive that you are going faster than the speed of light, what will change is your perception of time and the size of the approaching ship (the x and t dimensions)

 

[Hawaiian Punch]

THE DISTANCE IS BEING CLOSED AT A RATE QUICKER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT BUT NO OBJECT IN THIS SCENARIO IS EXCEEDING THAT BENCHMARK, BROTHER!

IMAGINE, IF YOU WILL MEAN GENE, THAT YOU HAVE BOUNCED OFF THE ROPES ON ONE SIDE OF THE RING! YOUR OPPONENT, FOR EXAMPLE, DAN SPIVEY, HAS BOUNCED OFF THE ROPES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RING! YOU ARE APPROACHING EACH OTHER AT A RATE THAT IS THE SUM OF BOTH OF YOUR VELOCITIES, MAN! BUT THIS FACT DOES NOT ENGENDER ANY ADDITIONAL ACCELERATION FOR EITHER COMPETITOR, BROTHER!

It's shocking how consistently well you pull this off