NYSportsGuy Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 So far it seems no one on this website really know or understands if Einstein's theories on time dilation are actually true. Ninety years later we are still debating and arguing these concepts today. After reading Einstein and his theories from the early 1900's....I have three really important questions I'd like answered to see who really knows what. 1) Can gravity affect the speed of light? If no, why? Have experiments ACTUALLY been done to prove this? If you shine a light beam down to the gorund and measure it's velocity will it be the same as when the same beam is shone upwards away from gravity? Remeber, gravity can bend light....so why can it not accelerate or slow it down? 2) Does light actually accelerate before reaching it's constant speed of 186,000 miles per second? If not, how do we know.....can it be proven? 3) According to E=MC*2, the general theory of relativiity and the inertial mass law, it takes infinitely more energy to to accelerate a small mass from .9c to c. Such an enormous amount of energy is not found or capable of being created by us on Earth according to scientists, therefore we cannot travel the speed of light. If this is the case, how come the sun can create enough energy to move photon masses of light particles the speed of c? Doesn't the Sun have to accelerate those particles first? 4) If we shone a beam of light into empty space how far would it go? Would it theoretically go on travelling at c (speed of light) forever?
Klaynos Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 Firstly einstein's relativity theories have been developed significantly since his original papers. 1) no, yes experimentally proven. 2) no. 3) You require more energy to increase speed by the same amount as your speed tends to c, I don't see how this relates to E=mc2 which it should be noted is the equation for a STATIONARY object. I don't really understand the question it doesn't seem to make sense, but conservation of momentum and spherical symetry means the sun don't accelerate much (ignoring it's orbit around the galaxy). 4) the photons would contiue on until they interact with something..
Janus Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 If this is the case, how come the sun can create enough energy to move photon masses of light particles the speed of c? Doesn't the Sun have to accelerate those particles first? The infinite energy requirement only holds for objects with a non-zero rest mass. Light has zero rest mass, and zero rest mass particles are required to travel at the speed of light. Photons are traveling the speed of light upon creation. The energy needed to create a photon is equal to that of the photon itself, which is related to its wavelength.
NYSportsGuy Posted March 2, 2008 Author Posted March 2, 2008 For question #1, if gravity can bend light why can't it pull it down with a higher velocity? Doesn't light have mass? I just can't see something moving as fast as 186,000 miles pers second with no acceleration force behind it....even if that acceleration is for a nanosecond. I think this may be proven wrong in the future. Question #3 relates to E=MC*2 because of the fact that mass is relative. According to Einstein, and I may be interpreting him wrong, but he says that since space and time are linked and when multiplied are always equal.....by increasing one you always decrease the other. Thus anything with mass, has an inertial force which increases as you increase the velocity or speed of the mass. Unless something is moving at "c" itself, he states the objects in our universe will always have some sort of motion in time....not ALL motion in space like photons in light do. But according to this principle then, photons have no inertial mass and thus no mass. However then how can light bend and be attracted by gravity if this is the case? Thus the speed of light is not the ABOSLUTE fastest something can travel because it still contains some minute amount of inertial mass.
Klaynos Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 No, photons do not have mass, and gravity changing the direction of light isn't really what's happening. Gravity bends the space and then the light travels around the bent space travelling in streight lines, it's speed is always c. I think before we carry on here, we need to note that photons are massless and that E=mc2 is a simplification of E2=(mc2)2 + p2c2
YT2095 Posted March 2, 2008 Posted March 2, 2008 think of water traveling down a hose pipe, it`s motion is Always forwards and at a constant rate. it doesn`t matter what shape you make the hose into, even if it`s a coil of hose on a reel, it`s still moving forwards relative to it`s Space (confinement).
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