From: Ken Clements (Ken@Innovation-On-Demand.com)
Date: Mon May 13 2002 - 16:57:47 MDT
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
> Edmund Grech wrote:
> ... could even then appear to be travelling faster than the speed of light; is
> > this a cosmological observation that can be made with distant galaxies I
> > wonder?
>
> NO! Bwahahaha!
>
> ...you need to read up on Special Relativity.
>
Edmund, don't let Eliezer's remark hurt your feelings. He is right, of course,
and I think you would enjoy an introductory book about Einstein very much. At the
end of the 19'th century, the very question you ask above was driving scientists
nuts. That was because it was observed that light arrived at the same speed no
matter how fast the source was moving (going away from us or coming right at us).
Today we accelerate particles to speeds very close to light, and slam them into
each other, head on. From the ordinary world, you would think that these
particles would see each other coming at nearly 2 times light speed, but in fact,
they each see the other as coming on at under the speed of light. Your question
is a great one; have fun reading all about it.
-Ken
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