If time was stopped, is inertia conserved?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mk
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Inertia Time
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the hypothetical scenario of stopping time and its implications for inertia. It is argued that if time were stopped, inertia would not be conserved because no changes could occur, as inertia is tied to motion and acceleration. The concept of time is linked to the change of state in systems, meaning that stopping time would prevent any physical events from happening, including the falling of bullets. Additionally, the laws of physics, including the nature of time, dictate that such a scenario is impossible, making the question largely meaningless. Overall, the conversation emphasizes that time's continuous flow is fundamental to the existence of inertia and physical events.
Mk
2,039
4
Ok, if I stopped time, and started it again. Would all the inertia of everything be "forgotten?" Or "remembered?" Would bullets suddenly fall to the ground from mid-air? Do you understand me?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
As much as I hate to admit it, I do understand you. :-p
Unfortunately, we can't stop time. If we could, I'd still be 25 years old. By relativity, all inertial frames have their own time. The only way to stop it is to travel at light speed. Since only massless particles can do that, there is no inertia to conserve. Time is more or less measured by the change of state of some system or other, so stopping it would by definition prevent any change at all from occurring. The closest that you can get is to take a picture of something. That's one instant of time frozen in place.
 
If you think about it, when you 'see' something, it's all about light hitting your eyes. So if time stopped, light would no longer travel and you would (of course, this can't happen as time's stopped for you as well) see nothing. I'm probably horrible wrong, but oh well.
 
Inertia is resistance to acceleration and its units do not include time - so what does that have to do with bullets falling to the ground?
 
Yes, if time stopped, laws of physics would indeed be violated. But this sentence is devoid of any meaning. Time not stopping IS one of the laws of nature, so it's like asking "If the Earth were flat, what would it be resting on?".
 
Falling of bullets back to the ground from mid-air is again an order of events ... whihc is titled 'time' again! ... STopping time would simply limit increase/decrease the fourth coordinate of the proposed space-time structure.Gained inertia maybe from a force or a collision , because the result of inertia is another 'set of ordered events appropriately responding to the action as per the laws of physics' , all these ordered events can perform each step of the order ONLY when the fourth coordinate time moves forward . Thus stopping time would simply restrict motion , bringing the object to a standstill.

BJ
 
Hello everyone, Consider the problem in which a car is told to travel at 30 km/h for L kilometers and then at 60 km/h for another L kilometers. Next, you are asked to determine the average speed. My question is: although we know that the average speed in this case is the harmonic mean of the two speeds, is it also possible to state that the average speed over this 2L-kilometer stretch can be obtained as a weighted average of the two speeds? Best regards, DaTario
I know that mass does not affect the acceleration in a simple pendulum undergoing SHM, but how does the mass on the spring that makes up the elastic pendulum affect its acceleration? Certainly, there must be a change due to the displacement from equilibrium caused by each differing mass? I am talking about finding the acceleration at a specific time on each trial with different masses and comparing them. How would they compare and why?
This has been discussed many times on PF, and will likely come up again, so the video might come handy. Previous threads: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/is-a-treadmill-incline-just-a-marketing-gimmick.937725/ https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/work-done-running-on-an-inclined-treadmill.927825/ https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-do-we-calculate-the-energy-we-used-to-do-something.1052162/
Back
Top