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Re: special relativity: accelerated frames



Following up on David Bowman's followup on John Denker's
problem...

Some might find the materials from an AAPT talk I gave 2 years ago
interesting. Please see "What happens when a*t > c?" at

<http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm/myweb/talks/atgtc.pdf>

The slides show some of the calculations behind the astonishing
results David refers to. I find it most interesting to note

1) that long duration (and I mean REALLY long duration) trips in
space will both demand AND be limited to essentially constant
accelerations pretty darn close to g due to the requirements AND
limitations of human physiology.

2) that, as a result, in a Newtonian universe--in which
"speed is unlimited"--we would be limited by our own longevities
to exploring at most a minute fraction of our own galaxy.

3) but that, in a relativistic universe--which naively appears to
impose a "speed limit"--we could easily--and, more importantly,
*comfortably*--explore essentially the entire universe.

John Mallinckrodt mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm