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To: noiseman

Think about this.

The speed of light, is the limit to how fast the spacecraft can fly.

But what if the spacecraft was to succeed in reaching 99% of the speed of light? So just 1% short of the speed of light.

The light beams (or radio waves) broadcast back toward base, would be travelling at the speed of light.

But what speed of light? Speed of light as measured relative to the ship which transmitted them? It is travelling away from earth, at 99% the speed of light. So would the radio/light waves be actually received here, at 1 percent of their original velocity?

Or would the radio waves be received here, at the speed of light here?

Is that conflict, what relativity is all about?

Anyway, that’s all. :D


18 posted on 06/22/2017 10:14:25 PM PDT by cba123 ( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam.)
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To: cba123
So would the radio/light waves be actually received here, at 1 percent of their original velocity? Or would the radio waves be received here, at the speed of light here?

The latter. Light always travels at the speed of light (in what ever medium), regardless of the speed of the sender or observer. It would be red- or blue-shifted due to the Doppler effect. But even if you had two parties traveling at 99% of the speed of light in opposite directions, not only would light transmitted between the two still appear to travel at the speed of light, neither one would see the other as traveling faster than light. They might see each other traveling at 99.99% (I didn't do the actual calculation, just giving an example) of the speed of light, but not in excess of it.

25 posted on 06/22/2017 10:36:46 PM PDT by calenel (The Democratic Party is a Criminal Enterprise. It is the Socialist Mafia.)
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