time dilation question

[foofighter]

so if u could get to cruising at around say 99.99999999% light speed, would that mean that every year you experience on the space ship is almost 186300 earth years? thx

[swansont]

At the appropriate speed relative to the other frame, yes.

[CPL.Luke]

note that that does not necessarily that time is dilated at that amount for the speed you gave, unless you did the math?

[foofighter]

so then the speed of light is like a limit in calculus, no? if i kept on getting closer and closer, eventually time would all but stop on my ship from earth's perspective, and i could traverse the entire universe in a human lifetime.

[swansont]

so then the speed of light is like a limit in calculus, no? if i kept on getting closer and closer, eventually time would all but stop on my ship from earth's perspective, and i could traverse the entire universe in a human lifetime.

 

Well, you might run into the problem of the universe expansion exceeding c, so that the universe is actually bigger than the visible universe, but that's an issue which gets you into general relativity.

[losfomot]

so then the speed of light is like a limit in calculus, no? if i kept on getting closer and closer, eventually time would all but stop on my ship from earth's perspective, and i could traverse the entire universe in a human lifetime.

 

Yes, you could cover a ridiculous distance in a human lifetime. I don't know about 'traverse the entire universe', because you have to remember that the universe is expanding, most of it is moving away from us faster than the speed of light, and it has had quite a head start... how about this...

 

If you were to accelerate at about 10 m/s/s (roughly earth's gravity) and continue that thrust for about 30 years, you would see the end of the universe as we know it. IE you would be somewhere in deep space, and you would likely not see a single speck of light because the universe will be very old , cold and dark.

 

HERE is a great device for calculating distance covered at relativistic speeds. Just change the 'time relative to rocket' (how long you want to be in the ship accelerating) and hit compute.