Speed of Light and Time Passed?

[cdeldridge]

I was hoping someone could answer this question for me, seeing as I have very little of a physics and mathematics background. Let's say a thousand years from now I build a ship that can travel at 99% the speed of light. For every day I spend on the ship, traveling at this speed, how many days pass on earth? Thanks....

[Janus]

I was hoping someone could answer this question for me, seeing as I have very little of a physics and mathematics background. Let's say a thousand years from now I build a ship that can travel at 99% the speed of light. For every day I spend on the ship, traveling at this speed, how many days pass on earth? Thanks....

 

7 days, 2 hrs, 7 min and 53.36 sec

[ajb]

The time dilation formula is given by

 

[math]\Delta t' = \frac{\Delta t}{\sqrt{1- \frac{v^{2}}{c^{2}}}}[/math]

 

Where [math]\Delta t'[/math] is the time measured by an observer moving at speed [math]v[/math] relative to the observer who measures time [math]\Delta t[/math].

 

So in your problem we have [math]v = 0.99 c[/math] and thus

 

[math]\frac{\Delta t'}{\Delta t} \approx 7[/math], which is where Janus gets the 7 days from.

[awuser896]

wow ajb, you're pretty sharp. good job man.