Recent content by Severian596

Wow! Frankenstein thread! I wouldn't have ever noticed this if I hadn't received an email notification. Yes, the distance between two objects (relative to a 3rd perspective in this case) can change at faster-than-light speeds. The distance between two objects is a massless piece of information.

The mutual silence here speaks volumes...you need to read your textbook! :)

Excellent question, CT, and the answer is very important (ZapperZ already mentioned it). Make sure to keep reading every text you can get your hands on, because we've all asked this question at one time or another; if you can accept the true answer it will blow your mind.

Hi Jay_598. I think it's safe to say that we've all asked the same question. In my opinion you've constructed a scenario based on your real life experience that you can accelerate a wheel's edge to a velocity that's much higher than its center simply by applying some rotational force. The...

It looks like you destroyed pervect's well-spoken explanation. He didn't say that two galaxies can recede from one another at a combined rate over C. He said that we on Earth can measure their apparent velocities relative to each other as being greater than C. But this is pretty meaningless...if...

Ah! That explains why your feedback has been heavy with QM talk...because that was where your understanding stemmed from. I think Mattara could say anything and everything that we've all said here and his friends will either a) walk away from the Q&A session with a few pop-science factoids...

I agree with you. I just think this is irrelevant given the intended audience. It won't change their view of relativity because they don't have a view yet. RandallB, I suggest you try to forget all the things that you feel are important to relativity at this point in your life and try to...

I can't tell by your text tone what you mean here. Mattara's initial question was: "Can you clearly define SR(T) and GR(T) only using no more than, say 5 lines so that I better can explain it to my friends?" So is your answer to this question no? Because your explanation was not oriented...

Sure man, I hope you find at least some of it helpful. I just know that if I brought RandallB's list to my wife she'd rather not hear it. It would be like explaining the rules of one game which she doesn't know how to play in terms of another game which she doesn't know how to play. I don't...

You know, that's not bad, but it may leave them saying, "So a ball always falls down? Duh! And what does the speed of light have to do with falling balls anyway?" But I'm just trying to prep you for their possible responses!

Holy Crap RandallB! Although your well thought out explanations are no doubt correct (I can't personally grade them though, you know way more than I do), if Mattara's friends are anything like mine their eyes would glaze over half way through #1. I personally think the language invovled in these...

Holy crap litlbunny, your generous use of extra commas makes it a bit difficult to decipher the flow of your thoughts. I'll offer some answers tho. Why would it be? Man-made apparatuses measure the flow of time using an arbitrary standard (the frequency of a vibrating quartz crystal with a set...

I think I would use four sentences to describe SR, then say that GR is basically SR as it exists "in real life" because it takes gravity and acceleration into account. SR usually relies on strict, specific circumstances for its equations to yield correct results (as the results would appear in...

It's not a paradox...a paradox, shamelessly copied from Wikipedia, is an apparently true statement or group of statements that seems to lead to a contradiction or to a situation that defies intuition. Really what you've described is simply relativity itself.

You're welcome! Glad to help. ZapperZ (as always) has provided a very concise and informative answer to your next question or why we can't straight-up add velocities together. I just popped on to say that you can use the relativistic velocity addition method at normal speeds. the factors that...