- #1
Mr.Bigg
- 12
- 0
I have two spacecraft originating from the same point each at velocity .9c in opposite directions. One spacecraft has a chord attached to it rigidly. The other has a spindle attached that can freely unwind the chord with no friction. We can measure the speed of the chord unwinding on this spacecraft . I allow the spacecraft s to travel for some unit of time x (maybe 1 year). Then after they have each traveled for x time they very quickly (say .5 s), come to a stop and have no relative velocity.
Measured from their starting point, they will both have traveled many light years of distance and their separation to each other will be many light years. If the chord is still attached, and the ships are at rest, many light years of chord will be stretched across space, yet it will have been impossible for the people inside spacecraft 2 to have dispensed that amount of chord in the allotted time as they would not be able to achieve a mass flow rate of the chord inside the ship that dispenses faster than the speed of light.
Blow my mind physics ninjas.
Measured from their starting point, they will both have traveled many light years of distance and their separation to each other will be many light years. If the chord is still attached, and the ships are at rest, many light years of chord will be stretched across space, yet it will have been impossible for the people inside spacecraft 2 to have dispensed that amount of chord in the allotted time as they would not be able to achieve a mass flow rate of the chord inside the ship that dispenses faster than the speed of light.
Blow my mind physics ninjas.