- #1
Buckethead
Gold Member
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Hi. First post here. I have no formal math or physics training, but read popular books on physics and am pretty well read as far as that goes. Now for the question.
I'm fascinated by the Newton's Bucket problem and fortunately for me it's cleared my head of the 2 brothers paradox (one on earth, one in ship, ship ages) with regard to which one is considered moving and which is stationary.
For a description of Newton's Bucket, here's a good one:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Newton_bucket.html
I've never liked the traditional idea that the brother that is considered moving (and therefore aging) is the one that is accelerating away because once acceleration stops and the ship continues at near light speed, the aging process continues yet the ship is only moving relative to the Earth and not accelerating away from it.
Newton's Bucket solves that problem by inferring that the ship is moving near light speed relative to either the stars or some universal fabric that is static or almost static relative to the stars.
Newton's bucket implies that if the universe were empty (I suppose this would include dark matter and energy) except for the bucket and a single observer, the bucket would seemingly have to behave strangely. For example, if the observer were spinning around the bucket (and the bucket around the observer) but both in the same direction as far as the two axis of rotation are concerned, the bucket could not be said to be spinning and therefore would not exhibit inertial forces or the resultant concave water. If the observer and bucket were spinning opposite to each other, then what? Would the water then become concave relative to the velocity of the observer? Or is a greater mass (or something else altogether) required such as massive galaxies? And if either or both are causing the water to become concave, then what exactly is causing it. I realize the simple answer is inertia, but this paradox implies that inertia would cease to exist in an empty universe and with the observer and bucket moving in the same direction or possibly in different directions as well.
Inertia would have to cease to exist in an empty universe that contained only a bucket of water and a single observer moving in the same direction around it as there would be absolutely no frame of reference with regard to acceleration. With no inertia, one could not feel any effects of acceleration so if the bucket exploded, or the observer sneezed, which would move relative to the other, and which one would age when applied to the two brother paradox.
Glad to have found this forum.
I'm fascinated by the Newton's Bucket problem and fortunately for me it's cleared my head of the 2 brothers paradox (one on earth, one in ship, ship ages) with regard to which one is considered moving and which is stationary.
For a description of Newton's Bucket, here's a good one:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Newton_bucket.html
I've never liked the traditional idea that the brother that is considered moving (and therefore aging) is the one that is accelerating away because once acceleration stops and the ship continues at near light speed, the aging process continues yet the ship is only moving relative to the Earth and not accelerating away from it.
Newton's Bucket solves that problem by inferring that the ship is moving near light speed relative to either the stars or some universal fabric that is static or almost static relative to the stars.
Newton's bucket implies that if the universe were empty (I suppose this would include dark matter and energy) except for the bucket and a single observer, the bucket would seemingly have to behave strangely. For example, if the observer were spinning around the bucket (and the bucket around the observer) but both in the same direction as far as the two axis of rotation are concerned, the bucket could not be said to be spinning and therefore would not exhibit inertial forces or the resultant concave water. If the observer and bucket were spinning opposite to each other, then what? Would the water then become concave relative to the velocity of the observer? Or is a greater mass (or something else altogether) required such as massive galaxies? And if either or both are causing the water to become concave, then what exactly is causing it. I realize the simple answer is inertia, but this paradox implies that inertia would cease to exist in an empty universe and with the observer and bucket moving in the same direction or possibly in different directions as well.
Inertia would have to cease to exist in an empty universe that contained only a bucket of water and a single observer moving in the same direction around it as there would be absolutely no frame of reference with regard to acceleration. With no inertia, one could not feel any effects of acceleration so if the bucket exploded, or the observer sneezed, which would move relative to the other, and which one would age when applied to the two brother paradox.
Glad to have found this forum.