- #36
pmb_phy
- 2,952
- 1
Please define your varialbles. I don't understand their meaning. First you use, say, t1 to refer to an acceleration and then later you use it to refer to the distance traveled by the light. It also appears as if you believe that all parts of an accelerating ship have the same velocities. That is incorrect. Recall that Lorentz contraction implies that the distance between tip and tail will be decreasing with time and therefore the tip and tail cannot be accelerating with the same value as measured in S (S = the initial inertial frame of reference).Chrisc said:The instantaneous velocity of the "accelerating" ship is:
t1=v1, at t2=v2, at t3=v3.
The distance traversed by each light signal is from emission at A to detectin at B is then:
t1=c-v1, at t2=c-v2, at t3=c-v3.
We are speaking of an uniformly accelerating frame of reference, correct? If so then I think that you're a bit confused on what a uniformly accelerating frame of reference is.
Let me explain: If the origin of a coordinate system S' is undergoing uniform acceleration as measured in S then the origin of that coordinate system would eventually accelerate to and beyond the speed of light. If at T = 0 you measured the acceleration of a particle dropped from rest at the origin of the accelerating frame S' it would have the value of, say, a, as measured from observers at rest in S'. However it you were to later drop another particle from the origin the origing from rest then it would not have the same value of acceleration. Thus a coordinate system such as that you defined will not represent a uniformly accelerating frame of reference. Only in the non-relativistic limit would this be true.
It once again appears that you're confusing the coordinate systems. It appears as if you are using measurements taken from the inertial frame of reference S and not from the accelerating frame S'. If a rate is constant one frame of reference then that doesn't imply that a rate is constant in another frame of reference.This means second 3 is less than second 2, and second 2 is less than second 1.
This is a "constant" change in the rate of time between A and B, and a "non-constant" time dilation
of A with respect to B.
In a gravitational field the time dilation of A with respect to B is "constant".