On Monday 19 April 2004 11:28, Matt W. wrote:

> I've never believed this for the following reasons:
> 1)  If you think of the earth moving away from the traveler near the speed
> of light, then returning to the traveler near the speed of light, then
> wouldn't the earth-bound sibling be the younger one?

This is because in 106, you don't talk about that fact that one has to 
accelerate (non-inertial reference frame) to get to near the speed of light.  
In 106 you are instantly traveling that fast because it's 106.  The fact that 
you have to travel through a non-inertial reference frame to go from 
traveling near the speed of light to rest with the earth is where your time 
dilation actually takes place.  In General Relativity, you make the 
distinction that the rocket, not the Earth is the thing accelerating, and 
Special Relativity problems (ie the problems you see in 106) makes that 
assumption, they just don't tell you that cause most 106 students just want 
to pass, not put holes in the ideas.  When you do things like that is when 
the professor asks you if you want to major in physics.  ;)

When one takes higher and higher level physics courses, one realizes that what 
the learned in the previous class was just a "special case" made with 
assumptions they didn't tell you about.

> 4)  As all electromagnetic pulses travel at/near the speed of light (don't
> they?), when I google.com/news, I'd be getting yesterdays news wouldn't I?
> The "information's" light clock would slow down as it traveled to my
> computer, while my light clock stayed the same, thus I'd grow old while the
> information was still young.  By the time I got it, I'd be like, "Holy
> Crap, I requested that info yesterday!" -more of a joke than logic.

No, your mixing this up with using the BYU network which by the time it can 
connect and load google, a day has gone by.

-- 
Jacob Albretsen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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