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JBou
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So someone is passing by me at ~the speed of light, which I believe would make them appear to be stationary from my point of reference. I decide to reach out and grab their hand. What happens?
JBou said:which I believe would make them appear to be stationary from my point of reference
What? No, if he is approaching you at the speed of light, he certainly is not, and would not "appear", stationary relative to you!JBou said:So someone is passing by me at ~the speed of light, which I believe would make them appear to be stationary from my point of reference.
Best outcome- his hand immediately slips out of yours. Worst scenario- both your hands get ripped off!I decide to reach out and grab their hand. What happens?
JBou said:if his clock is moving slowly, doesn't that mean he would appear to be moving slowly?
JBou said:I guess I just remember reading that if you were to watch an object approach the speed of light (I know its not possible), it would appear to slow down.
As someone is approaching you at a very high speed, they will appear to you to be moving very rapidly. If you could see a clock traveling with them, you would see its hand going around very fast. If you could watch him pacing up and down in his rocket ship, you would see him running up and down extremely fast.JBou said:So someone is passing by me at ~the speed of light, which I believe would make them appear to be stationary from my point of reference. I decide to reach out and grab their hand. What happens?
ghwellsjr said:As someone is approaching you at a very high speed, they will appear to you to be moving very rapidly. If you could see a clock traveling with them, you would see its hand going around very fast. If you could watch him pacing up and down in his rocket ship, you would see him running up and down extremely fast.
If you let this person pass by you, then you would immediately see all his actions and his clock slow down.
You make it sound so easy, like you merely observe with your eyes and then do some calculations and bingo, you've got Time Dilation. But I don't think it's quite that easy. How do you know what the light travel time is by just looking?PeterDonis said:In previous posts by me and others, we were using those same words to refer to something different--what you would calculate as the object's "apparent" clock rate relative to yours, after taking the light signals you actually are seeing (in the literal sense) and correcting that data for light travel time.
ghwellsjr said:How do you know what the light travel time is by just looking?
No one is suggesting a single observation, I think everyone agrees that the observer has been watching the other guy constantly for a fair amount of time from some distance away as he is approaching. Must we assume that he is traveling at a constant speed and a constant direction for your scheme to work? Must we assume that he must pass right by the observer for it to work?PeterDonis said:If all you have is one single observation, obviously you don't. But if you have a whole sequence of observations, with the apparent Doppler effect changing in a certain way, you can figure out from that what the light travel times must have been--or, to put it another way, you can reconstruct the object's trajectory in the coordinates of your rest frame.
ghwellsjr said:Must we assume that he is traveling at a constant speed and a constant direction for your scheme to work? Must we assume that he must pass right by the observer for it to work?
"Grabbing Hands at Speed of Light" refers to a hypothetical scenario where a person's hands move at the speed of light, which is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second. This is a thought experiment used to explore the consequences of traveling at such high speeds and the limitations of the laws of physics.
No, it is physically impossible for a person's hands or any object with mass to reach the speed of light. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, as an object approaches the speed of light, its mass increases infinitely and would require an infinite amount of energy to continue accelerating.
If a person's hands were to move at the speed of light, they would experience an infinite amount of time dilation. This means that time would pass much slower for the person's hands compared to someone observing them from a stationary reference point. Additionally, the person's hands would also experience an infinite amount of length contraction, making them appear much thinner and shorter from an outside perspective.
No, at the speed of light, a person's hands would not be able to grab anything. This is because at this speed, the forces holding atoms and molecules together would be overcome, causing matter to disintegrate. Additionally, the hands would also experience an infinite amount of mass, making it impossible for them to move or exert any force.
The implications of this scenario are mainly theoretical and help us understand the limitations of our current understanding of physics. It also raises questions about the nature of time, space, and the behavior of matter at extreme speeds. However, it is important to note that this scenario is purely hypothetical and cannot be achieved in reality.