🚀 go-pugleaf

Ross Levis wrote:
> 
> So we all know that the mass of an object increases it accelerates but
> in what way does the mass accumulate.  Would atoms be created and
> dispursed throughout the object?  Would the object then appear bigger or
> would the atoms just compress more?
> 
> Interestingly if we stay strickly with Einstein's theory then we must
> all gain a few atoms when we walk across the room or fly in a jet.

Nobody ever said that you gain any _matter_.  You gain _mass_.  That
means that each individual atom of your body becomes more massive, not
that you add more atoms.  Remember, the whole reason relativity works is
because it is relative.  When you accelerate from a standing position to
walk across the room, you do in fact gain an miniscule amount of mass
because of the energy you are expending.  I said miniscule; it wouldn't
even measure in picograms at such a small scale.  However, when you fly
in a jet, then you gain proportionally more mass.

The NASA astronauts have actually done some experiments that proved that
time dilates when acceleration is applied.  They took extremely accurate
clocks with them into space, and compared the time they showed to the
time showed by the clocks back on earth once the mission was over, and
there was a small but significant difference.

The whole point of relativity is that every single object in the
universe is stationary with respect to itself, and considers itself to
be operating at "normal" time.  If that object accelerates (in any
direction), it changes its state relative to other objects, but NOT TO
ITSELF.  If you were travelling at .9999 c relative to me, to you it
would still appear that you were stationary, but everything else would
appear to be moving past you at near the speed of light.  To me it would
appear that you were moving at near the speed of light.

In fact, the asymptotic nature of the relativity equations makes it
obvious that even if you were travelling at .9999 c, applying a given
amount of acceleration would still seem to you as if it produced the
same change in speed as if you were not moving at all.  You would feel
the same inertia, and would observe no difference between accelerating
from .9999 c or .0001 c.  The reason for this is that at any speed, a
given amount of thrust produces the same change in MOMENTUM, even though
it may not produce the same change in velocity.

This entire planet could be moving at .9999 c right now and we would
never know it.  In this universe, there is no such thing as
"stationary," except from a purely subjective point of view.  The
"secret" is that there is  no secret.  :)

-- 
John M. Aldrich, aka Fighteer I <figh...@cs.com>

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