Thread: Special Relativity misconceptions

Originally Posted by cmind

Light doesn't slow down or stop in a black hole, it's still going in a straight line at c, but spacetime itself is heavily warped compared to flat space. In other words, if you were in the black hole, you would see the light as behaving normally.

So we could be in a black hole right now.... Awesome.

One thing I don't get is this:

Why do you not age when you travel at the speed of light?
Is time light?
So if all my atoms are moving at c, my body doesn't age because they are moving "with" the flow, sort of thing?
It's just weird.

What specifically is time? Why does time stop when going c?
Does light not age either? How can you determine time, if light itself is moving everywhere in 0 seconds, but time is measured by the speed of light?

Originally Posted by sloth

No, but light can.
Should I replace the word "object" with "photons"?

Well, to a massless particle like the photon, the universe would be timeless. But being a matter-borne object yourself, you need not worry about that

Originally Posted by sloth

I didn't say that I had to see anything. Even if I am blind, the light RELATIVE TO ME is slowing down, and/or stopping. How is that not relative? Are you saying that I have to be able to manipulate the light in order for it to be relative? I don't think that's right.
The fact remains that relative to my position and momentum, the light is getting mangled in a black hole.

But the information about what's happening to the light in the vicinity of the black hole must necessarily exit that curved space to get to you. So when it gets to you it's behaving normally. I think your problem is that in your mind there's some "objective" observer, and you're not realizing that all observers are correct...

Originally Posted by tommo

So we could be in a black hole right now.... Awesome.

Actually a while back I read about a serious cosmological hypothesis that the universe itself is the interior of an event horizon, and the big bang is the singularity. Weird stuff.

Originally Posted by tommo

One thing I don't get is this:

Why do you not age when you travel at the speed of light?
Is time light?
So if all my atoms are moving at c, my body doesn't age because they are moving "with" the flow, sort of thing?
It's just weird.

You don't travel at the speed of light, so don't worry about it. Although I can say that as you approach the speed of light relative to a specific observer, your space and time dimensions start to 'mix', so that instead of travelling forward in space at a certain speed and forward in time at 1 second per second, your space speed increases less than normal and your time speed increases to more than 1 second per second.

Originally Posted by tommo

What specifically is time? Why does time stop when going c?
Does light not age either? How can you determine time, if light itself is moving everywhere in 0 seconds, but time is measured by the speed of light?

Not all questions have answers.

Originally Posted by cmind

Well, to a massless particle like the photon, the universe would be timeless. But being a matter-borne object yourself, you need not worry about that

You are assuming that I am a matter-borne object and I take offense, you damned hyooman!

Originally Posted by cmind

But the information about what's happening to the light in the vicinity of the black hole must necessarily exit that curved space to get to you. So when it gets to you it's behaving normally. I think your problem is that in your mind there's some "objective" observer, and you're not realizing that all observers are correct...

But it seems to me that if all observers are correct, that this, by definition, makes it relative. I'm sorry if I sound repetitious and stupid. Perhaps my definition of "relative" is incorrect", or maybe I have unlocked a secret of physics that science has yet to unravel. I shall call it "sloth's law", and it will be way cooler than anything that silly ol' Einstein came up with.

Originally Posted by cmind

Actually a while back I read about a serious cosmological hypothesis that the universe itself is the interior of an event horizon, and the big bang is the singularity. Weird stuff.

I like this.

Originally Posted by cmind

You don't travel at the speed of light, so don't worry about it. Although I can say that as you approach the speed of light relative to a specific observer, your space and time dimensions start to 'mix', so that instead of travelling forward in space at a certain speed and forward in time at 1 second per second, your space speed increases less than normal and your time speed increases to more than 1 second per second.

However, you don't observe this. Only an outsider would observe this, which would make this relative.
...right?

Originally Posted by cmind

Not all questions have answers.

I know! Like, when I try to pull out of a parking lot, and suddenly a convoy of vehicles appears out of nowhere to slow me down! Where do they come from!? What are they doing when they are not impeding my passage onto the road?

Originally Posted by sloth

But it seems to me that if all observers are correct, that this, by definition, makes it relative. I'm sorry if I sound repetitious and stupid. Perhaps my definition of "relative" is incorrect", or maybe I have unlocked a secret of physics that science has yet to unravel. I shall call it "sloth's law", and it will be way cooler than anything that silly ol' Einstein came up with.

Your definition is wrong.

Originally Posted by sloth

However, you don't observe this. Only an outsider would observe this, which would make this relative.
...right?

Correct. Your use of the word "relative" here is very different from above, when you were talking about looking at black holes from far away.

Originally Posted by sloth

I know! Like, when I try to pull out of a parking lot, and suddenly a convoy of vehicles appears out of nowhere to slow me down! Where do they come from!? What are they doing when they are not impeding my passage onto the road?

They wait...they wait.