Special Relativity: Ultimate Speed Limit

[kidsmoker]

Hi,
i'm just revising for my special relativity module and this bothers me:

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/1482/17053293.jpg

If the spaceship was going at slightly less than c then you would still see a completely different thing on Earth to what you would see on the ship. On earth, it would appear as if the light was moving a little ahead of the ship, whereas on the ship, the light would travel away with speed c. What is more special about the contradiction they derive?

Thanks!

 

[Fredrik]

Suppose that Alice and Bob are on the ship, and that Alice is closer to the front than Bob. Now Bob fires a very powerful laser in her direction. If the ship travels at c, she dies in one frame and survives in the other. That's a contradiction.

If the ship travels at 0.9999999999999999999999999c, Charlie on Earth may disagree with Bob about at what time Alice died, but they both agree that she dies. So there's no disagreement about what actually happens at that event, or any other. They only disagree about what numbers (coordinates) to assign to the event.

 

[Entropia]

The ultimate speed limit in special relativity, as represented by the constant speed of light (c), is a fundamental principle that has been supported by numerous experiments and observations. It is a key concept that leads to the famous time dilation and length contraction effects, as well as the concept of simultaneity being relative in different frames of reference. This means that the speed of light is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion.

In the scenario depicted in the image, if the spaceship was traveling at slightly less than the speed of light, the observer on Earth would see the light appear to move ahead of the spaceship. This is due to the fact that the observer on Earth is in a different reference frame than the spaceship and is experiencing time dilation and length contraction effects. However, for an observer on the spaceship, the light would still appear to be moving away at the speed of light. This is because the observer on the spaceship is also experiencing time dilation and length contraction effects, but from their perspective, it is the Earth that is moving away.

The contradiction that is derived from this scenario is that two observers in different frames of reference will see the same event (the light moving away from the spaceship) in different ways. This goes against our everyday experience where we assume that all observers will see the same event in the same way. However, in the context of special relativity, this is not the case due to the effects of the ultimate speed limit.

In conclusion, the contradiction derived from the ultimate speed limit in special relativity is that it challenges our understanding of how the world works and forces us to rethink our concepts of time, space, and simultaneity. It is a fundamental principle that has been extensively tested and continues to be a cornerstone of modern physics.