- #1
nemesiswes
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Ok so a friend and I were talking and a question came up about where is the kinetic energy of an object stored? You see the whole idea is around the fact that kinetic energy is information right? So we thought of a thought experiment for this, lol. Let's say you are in a ship in space, there is nothing in this space, no stars planets or anything not even vacuum fluctuations to try and tell how fast you are moving. Also the ship is not accelerating or decelerating. Also the speed is anything you want it to be as long relativistic effects don't matter, So how would you tell how fast you are moving? If the kinetic energy is information and it is part of the ship then how would you use it to tell how fast you are going? Also I know that in different frames of reference, the ship's kinetic energy could be zero and thus it is stored nowhere and at least from that frame, it is correct but I am talking about the fact that it is moving and obviously has energy, if there was an object in front of the ship and at some point in the next year it will hit it, there is going to energy released in that impact because of the ships speed (kinetic energy). Also this ship has no windows, lol
I am pretty sure it is stored in the object itself, now I don't know where or even how it is stored on it though.
My friend thinks it has to do with the mass increase from relativity, basically since no matter how fast you are moving there is always some amount or mass increase even at 1 mph there is a extremely small amount. So by doing experiments inside the ship with a particle accelerator, you could figure out how fast you must be moving. You would just have to do them in every direction to figure it out since in one direction the particle would never go faster the light and it would seem to go slower than the other directions, nevermind i just had a thought, even this wouldn't work, because from the observers (you) point of view the particle would go the speed of light in every direction, even in the direction of travel, even if the shipp was moving at 99.9999999999 and the particle was as well. from a outside observer, the particle would never go faster then light though.
So where is the kinetic energy of the ship stored and how is it stored and how in the scenario would you find out how fast you are moving since the ship has a certain amount of kinetic energy, and if that is information then there should be away to read it.
I am pretty sure it is stored in the object itself, now I don't know where or even how it is stored on it though.
My friend thinks it has to do with the mass increase from relativity, basically since no matter how fast you are moving there is always some amount or mass increase even at 1 mph there is a extremely small amount. So by doing experiments inside the ship with a particle accelerator, you could figure out how fast you must be moving. You would just have to do them in every direction to figure it out since in one direction the particle would never go faster the light and it would seem to go slower than the other directions, nevermind i just had a thought, even this wouldn't work, because from the observers (you) point of view the particle would go the speed of light in every direction, even in the direction of travel, even if the shipp was moving at 99.9999999999 and the particle was as well. from a outside observer, the particle would never go faster then light though.
So where is the kinetic energy of the ship stored and how is it stored and how in the scenario would you find out how fast you are moving since the ship has a certain amount of kinetic energy, and if that is information then there should be away to read it.
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