Does Travelling at Light Speed Turn the Time Cone into a Cube?

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The discussion centers on the implications of traveling at the speed of light (c) and its effect on the time cone, which is visualized as a three-dimensional structure with time on the y-axis and distance on the x and z-axes. At various fractions of light speed (1/10c, 1/5c, 1/2c), the time cone's shape changes, becoming narrower or wider based on velocity. The original poster questions whether traveling at c would result in reaching a point instantly, suggesting a conceptual shift from a cone to a cube that encompasses all future and past events. The response clarifies that while the journey appears instantaneous to the traveler, an outside observer would still perceive the trip as taking one year, highlighting the effects of time dilation and length contraction.

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Time is on the y-axis and distance is on the x-axis and z-axis. Depending upon your velocity the cone is formed. At, let's say 1/10c, you can reach point "A" in ten years and your cone is narrow, but at 1/5c point "A" is 5 years away and the cone is wider. At 1/2c you could be at point "A" in two years and the cone is extreamly wide. Now here is my question. I see that point "A" is one year away. Correct? Now if you could and if you were traveling at c would it take you one year to reach point "A"? I see the cone at c to be a cube encompassing all volume to the future. If so, you would arrive at point "A" immediatly as you left. Where am I wrong? Is c still a cone? Is infinity(c) the cube that I see. (That's poetry) Anyway, if so it would also encompass the past as well? Now I am more confused than when I started. HELP!
 
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Originally posted by kokain
Time is on the y-axis and distance is on the x-axis and z-axis. Depending upon your velocity the cone is formed. At, let's say 1/10c, you can reach point "A" in ten years and your cone is narrow, but at 1/5c point "A" is 5 years away and the cone is wider. At 1/2c you could be at point "A" in two years and the cone is extreamly wide. Now here is my question. I see that point "A" is one year away. Correct? Now if you could and if you were traveling at c would it take you one year to reach point "A"? I see the cone at c to be a cube encompassing all volume to the future. If so, you would arrive at point "A" immediatly as you left. Where am I wrong? Is c still a cone? Is infinity(c) the cube that I see. (That's poetry) Anyway, if so it would also encompass the past as well? Now I am more confused than when I started. HELP!

If I'm visualising your chart correctly, then it looks like what you've got there is a graph of length contraction (the flip-side of time dilation). To you, the time it takes to make the trip is indeed measured as 0, because the distance of the trip appears as 0 when you travel at lightspeed. However, to an outside observer, the distance was one lightyear, and the trip took you one year. But throughout that time and across that distance, you appear to them as frozen in time.
 

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