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> Acceleration Vs Velocity
Mr. Suchas
Posted: Feb 5 2008, 11:48 PM


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Alright, I don't plan on staying here long but I have some questions that I need help with. I am aware that no object can reach the speed of light but as an object approaches it, does its velocity inherently decrease? Does its acceleration decrease? Or is does the object appear (according to its own reference frame) to be moving at the same speed but relative to everything else its not? Thanks for your help.
-Mr. S
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Enthalpy
Posted: Feb 6 2008, 12:46 AM


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Hi!

First, the speed limit isn't the far result of a calculation or of a difficulty to accelerate. It is a fundamental hypothesis of Relativity that information can't travel faster than C. As moving objects carry information (for instance: sent it / didn't send it), they can't neither be faster than C.

Now, in the case that you try to accelerate more and more an object, the obserer who measures the object's speed will accelerate it less as the high speed makes the object heavier.

An observer on this object would say that the surroundings move at speed <C, but the surroundings has contracted its length, so that travel time can become arbitrarily small by accelerating more and more.

This tells as well that the object's travel time differs for an observer on the object or at the surroundings, just as lengths differ and so on. Hence the name Relativity.
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Mr. Suchas
Posted: Feb 6 2008, 10:58 PM


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Thanks for the feedback.
So an observer moving with/on the object experiences a speed approaching C. I'm still confused with acceleration though. Acceleration is what we can feel, a change in speed. A car stopping or starting, or hitting the ground after free falling are all detectable. So as the observer approaches C, is time slowing down for him and remaining at a 'normal' rate for people elsewhere making it appear to them that he is reducing his speed?

I know I'm not a good communicator so I will fill you in:
I am dealing with the scenario elsewhere that gravity is indistinguishable from acceleration in a local reference frame. (Einstein's Equivalence Principle)
However, after accelerating long enough, its seems that either you would have to decelerate due to approaching C or you constant acceleration of 9.8m/sē would grow larger than C. The only scenario I can think of is that the guy sitting in this "hyper rocket" has time dilate and on the universal large scale his speed is smaller than his perception. mellow.gif

I also do not understand the length relationship you are discussing. If this object is a rocket, are you saying that it is physically compressed (like crushing a soda can) or that spacetime is warping? Thanks for your help.

-Mr. S
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Mr. Suchas
Posted: Feb 10 2008, 12:09 AM


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Equivalence principle doesn't apply to alter relativistic properties (as far as I know huh.gif ) but Flat Earth Society believes the Earth is accelerating at 9.8m/sē straight up to simulate gravity. I am confirming that this is theoretically possible regardless of how likely.
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