Recent content by erik giles

I was thinking the same thing and I am going to tackle it next. I won't come back until I understand it well enough for good questions.

Okay, got it. Your question - what is the absolute position - confirms it for me. There is none, therefore such measurement is meaningless in absence of another body, which I excluded at the beginning of the thought experiment. I am now enlightened on this concept. Thanks and Merry Christmas all!

No I don't think it's silly at all! You've confirmed what I thought, which is my goal, I only want to be sure I have it right. Thanks!

Excellent thank you! Actually I think i have Taylor and Wheeler here somewhere. I have a number of books that I realized I should stop reading until I get through and totally understand SR and GR. I had high school classical physics, and a lot of advanced math in the area of statistics...

Right but can he measure his speed in any way?

That's what I thought. So, in this thought experiment, let's say a man is inside a moving spaceship (or a plan or train or anything else) and cannot look outside. He has no instruments connected to the outside. He therefore has no way to measure his speed, correct?

Good morning. I've just completed working through Einstein's work on special and general relativity. Do I understand that, in relativity, a moving object cannot measure its own speed without an external reference to compare to? IE, there is no experiment it can conduct to determine its own...

Agreed. Now in this case, the light photon is actually traveling the hypotenuse and will hit the moving target. The observer traveling parallel to it will experience time dilation such that from his view, light remains constant velocity C and gives the appearance of 'straight up' movement within...

If target one moves perpendicular to the source beginning at T-0 at 0.87C, while target two remains stationary, and both targets are 15 light seconds from the emitter at T-0, what target does it hit at T+15 seconds? Any answer other than target two implies that we have violated the principle...

Actually, in a non-moving experiment, both targets.

Target 1.

Is the path to target two longer or shorter (or the same) than the path to target one? Does a photon aimed straight up (relative to target one) deflect to follow and strike target one? Actually, yes I am denying the validity of the light clock thought experiment.

If it hits target 2, then the path is different (and longer) as the photon went at another angle, unless we believe the photon hits both targets. I do know that the moving target also experiences time dilation so it would observe the photon hitting target one at a different time.

I am not denying anything. I am asking which target? Can anyone answer? I know all these concepts and I know the concepts are correct. The only incorrect thing here is the light clock thought experiment, which I have proven invalid. Can anyone prove it valid? This experiment works, with...

Somebody missed something. Which target? 1 or 2?