Time dilation questions

[questionposter]

So if one person travels at 99.99 percent the speed of light near Earth for one second, then people on Earth would measure one second and observe that the person traveled nearly 99.99% of 186,822 miles but the only problem would happen is that the person traveling 99.99% the speed of light would be a few seconds younger than everyone else?

 

Also, if two people traveling at 99,99% the speed of light are right next to each other, will they not see each other's time slowing down because they are not traveling 99.99% the speed of light faster than each other relative to each other?

Edited September 4, 2011 by questionposter

[csmyth3025]

So if one person travels at 99.99 percent the speed of light near Earth for one second, then people on Earth would measure one second and observe that the person traveled nearly 99.99% of 186,822 miles but the only problem would happen is that the person traveling 99.99% the speed of light would be a few seconds younger than everyone else?

 

Also, if two people traveling at 99,99% the speed of light are right next to each other, will they not see each other's time slowing down because they are not traveling 99.99% the speed of light faster than each other relative to each other?

If two people (on the Earth and in a spaceship or in two spaceships) are moving at 99.99% of the speed of light relative to each other they will each see the other's time a being slower than their own. If two people are both moving at 99.99% of the speed of light "right next to each other", that implies that they are moving together in the same direction at 99.99% of the speed of light relative to some third object or observer. In this case the first two people will be in the same inertial frame of reference and their clocks will match.

 

Details explaining this and other consequences of special relativity can be found in the Wikipedia article on this subject. The introductory article can be found here:

 

http://en.wikipedia....cial_relativity

 

This article contains links to many other articles and papers that explain special relativity. Some are very basic and others are more advanced.

 

Chris

[Mike Anderson]

There isn't a problem with the person travelling near the speed of light being a few seconds younger than us. If you were the one in the spaceship and it wasn't accelerating, the people on Earth would seem to be a few seconds younger than you. So both observers will see themselves being older. Relativistically, there is nothing wrong with that.

 

You are right. Two people travelling in a spaceship both at 99.9c will observe the other as travelling through time at the same rate as them.