Time and Space

[Azure]

So....had a discussion on this with someone else.

Still not sure how exactly it works.

Say, if I traveled to Pluto and back at the speed of light, and it took 'x' amount of days, how would that be relative to the amount of 'time' it took to come back for someone here on earth who was keeping track?

....in the simplest words possible of course.

[photon]

Simplest words, you can't. Traveling at the speed of light would take infinite energy and you'd weight an infinite amount.

If you could for you the trip would be instant because at the speed of light there'd be no time passing, and for an external observer the trip would take 10 to 20 hours or so, depending of course where earth and pluto were in their respective orbits.

The faster you go, the slower time passes for you.

[CaptainCrunch]

Plus if you didn't steer right, you'd bounce to close to a star or fly through a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Plus if you didn't steer right, you'd bounce to close to a star or fly through a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick.

Because the solar system is littered with stars and supernovas in much the same way Francis' columns are littered with truth.

[Locke]

I made the Kessel run in 11 Parsecs. Eat that Solo!

[sixpacked]

I've got a bad feeling about this thread.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

I made the Kessel run in 11 Parsecs. Eat that Solo!

Isn't a parsec a measure of distance, that makes no sense

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Because the solar system is littered with stars and supernovas in much the same way Francis' columns are littered with truth.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Azure

Say, if I traveled to Pluto and back at the speed of light, and it took 'x' amount of days, how would that be relative to the amount of 'time' it took to come back for someone here on earth who was keeping track?

Here's a more important question. Who the hell goes to Pluto anymore?

A DWARF planet? Please. Save your energy.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Isn't a parsec a measure of distance, that makes no sense

Ah!! It is, but you see the Kessel run is surrounded by Black Holes and if your ship is fast enough you can fly really close to them which distorts the fabric of space and actually makes the trip shorter!

Its possible that this thread is not entirely stable.

[worth]

As Photon said, you can't travel at 100% the speed of light. You can only approach the speed of light, meaning 99.9% (repeating).

If you read "Relativity: The Special and General Theory" it explains it all pretty simply.

Again, as photon said, the faster you go, the slower time passes for you.

This has been proven by synchronizing an atomic clock on a very fast jet with one on the ground. Fly the jet around at high speeds for a long period of time and eventually you will see a difference between the two clocks because time has slowed down for the clock on the jet relative to the time for the clock on the ground.

The same is true for astronauts because the orbit the earth at 17,000mph for months at a time. They have basically time traveled a fraction of a second into the future because their clocks slow down relative to time on earth.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Isn't a parsec a measure of distance, that makes no sense

Unless Solo took a shortcut.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

Ah!! It is, but you see the Kessel run is surrounded by Black Holes and if your ship is fast enough you can fly really close to them which distorts the fabric of space and actually makes the trip shorter!

Its possible that this thread is not entirely stable.

I think there's something crawling around on the outside of this thread.

[evman150]

Originally Posted by Locke

I made the Kessel run in 11 Parsecs. Eat that Solo!

Classic Star Wars error.

1 parsec ~ 3.26 light years ~ 206,265 AU, where 1 AU is the mean Earth-Sun distance ~ 1.5E8 km.

So yeah, the parsec is a measure of distance. It derives from the words "parallax" and "second". The 206265 number, seemingly random, is not. 206265 is the number of arcseconds in a radian (3600*180/pi).

As for special relativity, it's not that hard once you wrap your mind around it. When you go fast, time slows down, length gets contracted.

Talking about (massive objects) going the speed of light is not very productive. It just ends in infinities and singularities, nothing substantive.

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by evman150

Classic Star Wars error.

1 parsec ~ 3.26 light years ~ 206,265 AU, where 1 AU is the mean Earth-Sun distance ~ 1.5E8 km.

So yeah, the parsec is a measure of distance. It derives from the words "parallax" and "second". The 206265 number, seemingly random, is not. 206265 is the number of arcseconds in a radian (3600*180/pi).

As for special relativity, it's not that hard once you wrap your mind around it. When you go fast, time slows down, length gets contracted.

Talking about (massive objects) going the speed of light is not very productive. It just ends in infinities and singularities, nothing substantive.

my head hurts

[Azure]

Originally Posted by photon

Simplest words, you can't. Traveling at the speed of light would take infinite energy and you'd weight an infinite amount.

If you could for you the trip would be instant because at the speed of light there'd be no time passing, and for an external observer the trip would take 10 to 20 hours or so, depending of course where earth and pluto were in their respective orbits.

The faster you go, the slower time passes for you.

Ahh....duh.



I get it now.

[arsenal]

It doesn't matter, we all live in the matrix anyway

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Here's a more important question. Who the hell goes to Pluto anymore?

A DWARF planet? Please. Save your energy.

Heeeey now, don't be knocking Pluto.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

Ah!! It is, but you see the Kessel run is surrounded by Black Holes and if your ship is fast enough you can fly really close to them which distorts the fabric of space and actually makes the trip shorter!

Its possible that this thread is not entirely stable.

There's a reason why Han Solo was frozen in Carbonite, not because of the fiendish brilliance of Darth Vader's plan to capture Luke Skywalker, or Bobba Fett's relentless pursuit of a bounty.

It was because he was a big fat stupid head who couldn't read his control panel.

What the hells an Aluminum Falcon?

[Azure]

So how did this thread go all geekish on me?

Go somewhere else you nerds!