Excursions at the Speed of Light 360
D4C5CE writes "S/F fans can finally find out what you really get to see at relativistic velocity, and tourists are one step closer to "doing Europe in a day" in these amazing Space Time Travel simulations of the Theoretical Astrophysics & Computational Physics department at the Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics Tübingen. They put you in a driver's seat that both Armstrong the Astronaut and Armstrong the Cyclist would equally enjoy, in simulators built to ride a bike at the speed of light."
Sounds like a wonderful experience... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:G forces (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:G forces (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sounds like a wonderful experience... (Score:5, Insightful)
All this is, of course, assuming Einstein was right (and I think some experiment somewhere proved these effects to be correct)
How long? (Score:3, Insightful)
Looking backwards would be kinda sweet though, if it didn't blind you immediately.
Re:Caution: Chinese Weaponization of Space (Score:3, Insightful)
Why does this troll keep showing up? The Chinese don't have the resources to compete with the US. They've attempted manned space travel several times (even outright copying the Dynasoar design) and every time have had to cut it because of the cost. For now, I wouldn't worry too much about the Chinese one-upping the US on their own technology. Start worrying when they launch an Orion (not bloody likely).
Note that the Chinese space program is completely under the auspices of the Chinese department of war. By contrast, in the USA, NASA is an entirely civilian effort.
This is a GOOD thing. Remember what happened when the space program was under the United States department of war? (Specifically the Air Force?) That's right, some good engineering was done, but we didn't GET anywhere. It wasn't until NASA was formed that the US actually got into the race.
Re:How long? (Score:3, Insightful)
Looking forward.. now thats a different story.
Uh, what about the Dopler effect? (Score:2, Insightful)
Traffic Lights.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sounds like a wonderful experience... (Score:5, Insightful)
But matter can't travel that fast, only things without mass. So, there is the interesting question of what you have that you would call a "bike" or "you".
Physics does not break at the speed of light, but intuitive physics is dead. Relativity is a strain on it at any high speed but just forget lightspeed.
(As I always do when this topic comes up, if you want a crack at understanding this stuff for real, try Reflections on Relativity [mathpages.com], free online.)
Re:How long? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tübingen project got the colors wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Tübingen project got the colors wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, far blue carries less information than far red.
Still, it'd be cool to see the effect of ultraviolet being shifted through the visible spectrum.
Cherenkov (sp?) light... (Score:1, Insightful)
Close, but not quite (Score:1, Insightful)
That being said: there is a competition between a clock in orbit running slower than a ground clock due to its speed, and running faster due to it being in weaker gravity (gravitational time dilation). For the GPS clocks, those shifts are 7,200 ns/day and 45,900 n/s day, respectively, so the latter wins out, and the clocks run faster. See this page [wits.ac.za].
Re:Cosmos (Score:3, Insightful)