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Eeko

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Blog Comments posted by Eeko

  1. Pinkie Pie laughs in the face of Physics. :P

     

    The other cool thing about the light clock, is that you can geometrically derive Lorentz's equation for time dilation. It's a little tricky, but it can be done.

     

     

    Something I was just wondering though:

    Say you are traveling at .6*c, relative to say... the sun. Now say that someone else is moving .6*c in the opposite direction, also relative to the sun.

    Wouldn't you see the other moving at 1.2*c, which should be impossible?

    Or, similarly, say you were traveling 90% the speed of light, and fired a laser in front of you. So you see the laser moving away from you at 3.0 X 108. What keeps you from speeding up to 90% the speed of the light wave you just fired?

     

    Just two scenarios I find confusing. Wondering if you knew the answer.

  2. I'm actually just about to hit Relativity in my class as well. :P

    I always found the subject so fascinating, it's part of why Optics is my field of choice. (that and high-energy laz0rs, but I digress).

    When I first learned about relativity, it was through the "light clock" explanation. Where you have a cylinder 3.0 X 108 meters tall, and a beam of light bounces back and forth, marking a second at each contact. Then as the clock moves the light traces a sawtooth path, and using Pythagorean theorem, you could tell the new distance, along with the new time for the clock.

     

    I always loved that explanation. It just seems so intuitive and counter-intuitive. :P

  3. Oh do I feel your pain...

    One of my first college courses, we had this guy who always showed up stoned out of his mind.

    The professor never realized, so we ended up with question, after question, after question...

     

    Absolutely mind-numbing.

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