Suppose you are in a "Relativity Lab" You send a muon at 99% speed of light through a source to a detector that will detect the muon. The total distance the muon has to travel is 3 km. But here's the catch, Muon particles are unstable and decay in .22 milliseconds, so the muon at 99% speed of light will only reach .65 km before it decay's. So you predict that the detector will not be able to detect the muon because it will decay before it gets there. But the detector does detect the muon, how? Time dilation. Time for the muon slowed down by a factor of 7.1. So you multiply .65 km by 7.1 and get about 4.5 km. So the muon could have traveled 4.5 km before it decayed so it easily reached the detector which was only 3 km away. So I have a question, If time dilates by a factor of 7.1 at 99% the speed of light, then by how much does time dilate at 100% or exactly the speed of light? Just curious, thank you.
2010-01-30T00:04:46Z
I know you need 0 mass to travel at speed of light, but just suppose it were possible, by what factor would the time dilation occur at 100% the speed of light
socialdeevolution2010-01-30T00:23:08Z
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The effects time dilation are relative to the Speed of Light, as you seem to understand.
As Velocity increases, the passage of time from the particles frame of reference slows. At the speed of light, time finally comes to a halt and from the particle's frame of reference, the outside world ceases forward movement in time.
As far as the particle is concerned, at 300,000,000 meters per second, it leaves the emitter and reaches the detector with 0 time having passed in the world around it.
yes, the time dilation occurs as you predict in the case of 99% the speed of light. Realistically, you should not expect to directly exert the momentum on a particle to raise it to this speed (which is not really very fast, in an astronomical scale).
A particle cannot reach a velocity of c, not even in a laboratory. It requires all the energy in the universe and then some. We Space Lizards are not willing to consume so much energy to confirm the theory, but we have a better solution.
For velocities greater than about 2% of c, a warp field becomes "profitable" in that it requires less energy to generate a warp field than physically accelerate. Though, I suppose you humans will learn this soon enough =)
I have no idea if the mathematics is proper however the precept is sound. The individual journeying at prime velocity could age not up to any one who stayed on the earth. Checkout the dual paradox. edit* I simply realised some thing you can also have got to don't forget. When the send arrives on the vacation spot the period of time it took to arrive the alien global, from an extraterrestrial beings factor of view, could nonetheless be a 12 months now not fifty one days. This is primary if this can be a very lengthy travel. Also, I do not suppose FTL communique will ever be viable, regardless of how complicated technological know-how turns into sooner or later. If it have been viable you'll must manage time journey paradoxes which are not able to be resolved and could smash the tale. Earth will must wait 2 years to obtain the message of the visitors nontoxic arrival. edit* Is any one nonetheless tracking this question? I'm now not definite who has the correct reply. If you seem on the trouble entirely in phrases of targeted relativity, then Argent's reply looks proper. But Oni Seetan's reply has piqued my curiosity. Is the side of the reply that is lacking have whatever to do with Lorentz contraction? Does the Lorentz contraction regulate the visitor's size of duration in order that after fifty one days, from their factor of view, they've most effective travelled a fragment of the space to their vacation spot? How do Einstein's and Lorentz's theories mix? Can any one explain their reply to comprise this? I desire that edit made experience, I'm fascinated with this field, and could love a whole reply. =)