The speed of light and Einstein's theory of relativity

[Six Foot Three]

Originally Posted by lkb0714

SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE.

Much better name than quantum entanglement IMO.

Didn't Einstein call it ''spooky and strange'' if memory serves me correctly?

I've read about a select few quantum physicist's who think that QE is the functionality to how ESP or even prayer ''supposedly'' works??

[BigCityDreamer]

Originally Posted by EHCT

OK... forget my last post. I now understand that distances are shortened in relation to an observer travelling at the speed of light. This is observed in the Lorentz-Contraction. This observation occurs only in the direction of motion and without it the speed of light could not remain constant. I thank you for your "food for thought" as it did in fact help increase my understanding of this concept

Yes, length contraction happens only in the direction of motion.

BTW, one result of time dilation is that if you traveled in a spaceship very close to the speed of light for a few years and returned to the earth, then you would be so far in the future that the society you left would no longer be in existence. Maybe even humankind would no longer be around.

Kind of problematic, I think. :-)

[Werone]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Time is always the same in all inertial frames (i.e. moving at constant velocity and without any gravity). For two frames moving relative to each other, both frames would observe clocks running slowly in the other frame and normally in their own frame.

The whole premise of the Theory of Relativity is that time is not a constant but depends on the reference frame of the observer. Space and time are therefore subject to the reference frames of the observer.

[Werone]

Quantum Physics is spooky because we have not defined the phenomena yet.. we do not fully understand it. The double slit experiment shows different quantum behavior dependent on whether you observe or account for which slit the electron passed through.... if you do not account/measure which slit the electron passed through then you get an interference pattern bahvior like a wave function, if you do measure which slit the electron goes through then you seem to influence a particle like behavior that gives you a particle like result - two slits.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by Werone

The whole premise of the Theory of Relativity is that time is not a constant but depends on the reference frame of the observer. Space and time are therefore subject to the reference frames of the observer.

The premise of special relativity is that physics is the same in all inertial frames (observers at constant velocity). This means that no experiment can determine your absolute velocity, because there is no such thing as an absolute velocity. A consequence of this is what you wrote: that time is relative to the frame of reference. There is symmetry, though; two observers moving at speeds near that of light relative to each other will each observe the others clock to move slowly.

The reason that a traveler will experience less proper time than a someone who is stationary isn't because they go faster but because they have to accelerate to and decelerate from different inertial frames.