thread: Time paradoxes
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  #27  
03-20-2006, 11:34 AM
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Adder
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: Oct 2002
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Adder  (11)

"Time dilation" - yes.

The idea is that since the speed of light is constant through any medium (regardless of the velocity of the viewer), time must be relative.

The example:

You're in a train and you throw a rock at 5 meters/sec. Someone looking at the train go past them will see you throw a rock and the rock traveling at 5 m/s faster than the train. However, if you were to use a laser and measure the speed of light on the train you would "see" light traveling at the same velocity as someone who was stationary and looking at the laser light.
{I know that doesn't seem to make any sence, but it's aparently been proven}

So... if I move at the speed of light for one year (say, in a spaceship that keeps going back-and-forth between the moon and the earth) no time will pass relative to me {I won't get older} but time will pass as normal for the earth {everyone else will be one year older since one year has passed}.

The joke I made out of this is "don't rush or you'll be late", since the faster you move the further forward in time you get relative to everyone else {you will be earlier by your watch, but later by everyone else's}
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