Recent content by strongarm

Thanks for your help, jimmy. Its a bit clearer now, but just to be safe, I'll still be hitting some physics books. The Taylor&Wheeler book looks interesting. I wish there were cheaper alternatives, though. Besides picking your good gentlemen's brains, that is.

Let's say they both gradually decelerate to a dead stop at points B and C, then cruise back to A at normal speed. So you're saying that even if the return trip is "gradual", there will still be time dilation effects that eventually reconcile their clocks, but this time spread out over a much...

Chi, your (Feynman's) example makes practical layman sense. Thanks! Fortunately, Card is one of my favorite authors. I also have his book "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy", part of which he talks about different modes of interstellar travel. Ah, here's my second question. Do you read...

Hello jimmy. I didn't realize it was important to establish who actually "feels" the acceleration. Anyway, couldn't the scenario be setup so effects of acceleration is neutral? We could start with S already at near-lightspeed as it whizzes by A, then later have A and S then execute a similar...

A and B are fixed points, relative to each other. So the motion in question is A relative to the spaceship (let's call this S), not to B. So either S travels from A to B, then back to A; or A and B simultaneously move, relative to S, then retrace their motion. Either way, at the end of the...

Hi all! This is a neat forum; wish I'd found it sooner... I'm writing a short scifi story, and am having trouble understanding time dilation, which happens to be an integral part of the story. Anyway, here's my question: Its common scifi staple where starfarers travel at close to the speed...