How would the solar system appear if you approached at near c?

[Herman Trivilino]

It will increase with redshift when going away, and decrease with blueshift when going back, so at the end, one year will have elapsed for each Earth cycle.

It's true that there's a red shift going away and blue shift returning, It's not true that at the end one year will have elapsed on the traveling twin's clock for every trip Earth made around the sun.

 

[Herman Trivilino]

I see! As I thought, the observer is still looking at the clocks go by, so it is not really a new experiment, moreover, it only injects the result of a mind experiment into another one, which is far from deducing the same result out of two different experiments.

But you can do a complete and independent analysis of the parallel light clock with no reference to the perpendicular one. When you do the math two things stand out:

1. The results of the perpendicular light clock analysis match the results of the parallel light clock analysis.

2. The results of the perpendicular light clock analysis match what we observe real clocks doing.

Thousands of engineers, technicians, and scientists work with time dilation every minute of every day at hundreds of locations across the world. It's real.

 

[Dale]

Data is more important than assumptions though,

I agree completely:
http://www.edu-observatory.org/physics-faq/Relativity/SR/experiments.html

 

[Chris Miller]

It's just that the time that elapses for each orbit will be less for the traveler than for someone who remained on Earth.

So, if the traveler's velocity were close enough to c, she might "see" the Earth orbiting the sun millions of times per second?

 

[jbriggs444]

So, if the traveler's velocity were close enough to c, she might "see" the Earth orbiting the sun millions of times per second?

If by "see", you mean see with your eyes, using an appropriately powerful telescope then a traveler approaching the solar system could indeed see such a thing.

From the traveler's point of view, the explanation for this would be that the Earth is orbiting the sun quite slowly (time dilation), but that the solar system is approaching the traveler at such a high rate of speed that light from the "Earth last Christmas" has only moved ahead by 1000 feet or so by the time the light from "Earth this Christmas" is being emitted (Doppler effect for a moving emitter).

From the Earth's point of view, part of the explanation for this is that the traveler's clock is slowed down so much that the light from "Earth last Christmas" and "Earth this Christmas" arrive one microsecond tick apart according to the traveler's massively slowed clock (time dilation). The other part is the fact that the traveler is racing ahead to meet all the images of Christmases past so that the rate nearly doubles (Doppler effect for a moving receiver).

 

[PeterDonis]

you can get out anytime you want.

Done. Thread closed. Please read the PF rules on personal theories; further posts along the lines you have shown here will receive a warning.