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A question about how time and inertia interact


JimDB

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If you were traveling at the speed the speed of light and you suddenly changed direction would you still be affected by inertia?

On the one hand inertia affects all mass but on the other hand your also in your own time zone and while you'd still be subject to the same laws as everything else the time it takes to have an effect would be different right?

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If you were traveling at the speed the speed of light and you suddenly changed direction would you still be affected by inertia?

On the one hand inertia affects all mass but on the other hand your also in your own time zone and while you'd still be subject to the same laws as everything else the time it takes to have an effect would be different right?

 

We have no maths or physics which works for a massive body travelling at the speed of light - our laws mean this is not possible / break down there and anything passed this point is hypothetical and, we believe, non-physical.

 

Massless particles (photons etc) travel at that speed - but even so we cannot shoehorn this into an inertial frame of reference (which is what I think you mean by your "own time zone"). There is no inertial frame of reference which is travelling at / above light speed with respect to another inertial frame. Because of this we do not know what happens to time - we are pretty certain that you cannot just extend the equations which govern time dilation for sub-luminal speeds to light speed. Doing that would create what is called a mathematical singularity - a divide by zero - and the equations give out nonsense answers; you have taken the physics beyond its range of applicability.

 

So to answer your question - we don't know what would happen because we are pretty sure that you cannot do it in the first place. AND if somehow it does turn out to be possible then it will not be descibed by our physics - it will need completely new ideas.

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Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion, including changes in its speed and direction or the state of rest. It is the tendency of objects to keep moving in a straight line at constant velocity. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics that are used to describe the motion of objects and how they are affected by applied forces. Inertia comes from the Latin word, iners, meaning idle, sluggish. Inertia is one of the primary manifestations of mass, which is a quantitative property of physical systems. Isaac Newton defined inertia as his first law in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which states:

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

One

 

 

We have no maths or physics which works for a massive body travelling at the speed of light - our laws mean this is not possible / break down there and anything passed this point is hypothetical and, we believe, non-physical.

 

Massless particles (photons etc) travel at that speed - but even so we cannot shoehorn this into an inertial frame of reference (which is what I think you mean by your "own time zone"). There is no inertial frame of reference which is travelling at / above light speed with respect to another inertial frame. Because of this we do not know what happens to time - we are pretty certain that you cannot just extend the equations which govern time dilation for sub-luminal speeds to light speed. Doing that would create what is called a mathematical singularity - a divide by zero - and the equations give out nonsense answers; you have taken the physics beyond its range of applicability.

 

So to answer your question - we don't know what would happen because we are pretty sure that you cannot do it in the first place. AND if somehow it does turn out to be possible then it will not be descibed by our physics - it will need completely new ideas.

 

One way to answer requires a new approach. Consider this hypothetical scenario. Say we had two space-time references, with one reference moving slower that the other. We are in the faster reference and somehow we are able to stick just our arm into the slow reference, where we will try to dribble a basketball.

 

When we try to dribble normal for our reference, because the other reference is running slower, the ball seems to lag due to time running slower. We will need to push harder to get it to move normal for our reference. After the ball rebounds the floor and pushes up against our hand, at what appears to be normal speed, it will seem to have extra inertia. The relativistic time difference due to reference in reference creates an effect that can appear to change the inertia.

 

In the movie Matrix, Nero is able to move faster than normal. This is analogous to the computer program for the matrix generating reference in reference. He is able to overcome the limits of inertia on his body, when making quick moves in the bulk Matrix. He does not shear apart because the time differential of reference in reference changes the inertia.

 

Relative to the question, the effect will be variable based on the reference time differential used during the maneuver.

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