- #1
danR
- 352
- 4
I've been posing this question to physicist folk for 10 years, mySpace 6 years ago, and here (don't know when, when I had an older account), and I see that others bring it up on occasion. I will refine it to meet current objections.
You have a photonic drive spaceship. It has a (classical) mass ratio (fueled to empty weight) sufficient for it to classically reach or exceed its exhaust velocity.
Claim: You (as far as you're concerned, not an external observer) will reach planetary system A, 10 light-years away, in 10.0000... years (or even 9.9 years).
So, when your onboard calendar/clock, not some external observer's, reaches 10 years on the dot, will you be at planetary star system A?
[I have stripped the usual baggage from this question. It's not asking about ultimate speed, but arrival time, a distinct physical and temporal terminus ad quem. It's not about mass increase in antimatter fuel, hence getting back the energy investment dividends to re-expend in infinity-busting thrust. No, it's not about that. It's not about external observers. I don't care whether you look flatter, or your clock is slow, or your mass is on steroids. And just to be clear, you turn your ray-gun on all external beings in the universe. So you have none to bring into this gedankenexperiment. This universe has only one person, you. In your spaceship.]
And if there's any flaw in my exposition, but not the argument, I trust someone will repair it, then satisfactorily refute the corrected argument.
You have a photonic drive spaceship. It has a (classical) mass ratio (fueled to empty weight) sufficient for it to classically reach or exceed its exhaust velocity.
Claim: You (as far as you're concerned, not an external observer) will reach planetary system A, 10 light-years away, in 10.0000... years (or even 9.9 years).
So, when your onboard calendar/clock, not some external observer's, reaches 10 years on the dot, will you be at planetary star system A?
[I have stripped the usual baggage from this question. It's not asking about ultimate speed, but arrival time, a distinct physical and temporal terminus ad quem. It's not about mass increase in antimatter fuel, hence getting back the energy investment dividends to re-expend in infinity-busting thrust. No, it's not about that. It's not about external observers. I don't care whether you look flatter, or your clock is slow, or your mass is on steroids. And just to be clear, you turn your ray-gun on all external beings in the universe. So you have none to bring into this gedankenexperiment. This universe has only one person, you. In your spaceship.]
And if there's any flaw in my exposition, but not the argument, I trust someone will repair it, then satisfactorily refute the corrected argument.
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