Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Physics Forum Relativity, Time Dilation and Space/Time

When the traveler and the observer are both at rest (or share the same IRF); length contraction = 1 (no change) and the time dilation factor = 1 (both clocks run at the same speed).

If the traveler is moving at .866c (as compared to the observer); length contraction = .5 and the time factor is 2. So that means that the traveler’s dimension (in the same direction of travel) is half of what it would be if the traveler was in the same reference frame as the observer. Also, the traveler “sees” the observer’s clock run twice as fast (time dilation factor)…but this also means that the observer sees the traveler’s clock run half as fast as his.

If the traveler is moving at .968c (as compared to the observer); length contraction = .25 and the time factor is 4. So that means that the traveler’s dimension (in the same direction of travel) is a quarter of what it would be if the traveler was in the same reference frame as the observer. Also, the traveler “sees” the observer’s clock run 4 times as fast…but this also means that the observer sees the traveler’s clock run a quarter as fast as his.

So basically, the more that the traveler approaches 1.0c; the higher the time dilation factor. Theoretically, if the traveler could achieve a speed of exactly 1.0c; the observer wouldn’t see the traveler’s clock budge even one millisecond, no matter how long the observer monitored it.

Of course this is theoretical. They say that the traveler can’t actually achieve a perfect 1.0c because she “slams” into bunch of logistical problems. The main obstacle is that the traveler would require an infinite amount of energy to accomplish it. Another is that the observer is probably not “standing still” either.

There is a user friendly calculator on a website that I like:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Relativ/tdil.html

If you play with it for a little while; I think that it will do a better job of presenting the relationships to you than I can by using just words.

BTW, my new job is cutting into my free time in a big way. Even though, I can keep up with reading the new SAGG posts easily enough; writing and responding is going to be real hit and miss. It’s kind of frustrating because there is a lot of content that I would’ve liked to chime in on.