🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <56abof$c...@csugrad.cs.vt.edu>, on 12 Nov 1996 12:22:23 -0500, Jon 
A. Maxwell regaled us with...
>
>Scott Hess wrote:
>
>] You _cannot_ go faster than the speed of light while remaining
>] in our universe.  Almost by definition, if you are going faster
>] than the speed light travels in our universe, then you are
>] _not_ in our universe.
>
>Scott, just curious if you have two bodies coming at each other
>really fast, why will gravity not accelerate them to the speed of
>light?  Is it because the faster they get the less mass they
>have, so less gravity?  What if one or more of the bodies has
>mass enough to be a black hole?

Mass increases with velocity, not decreases. But as the mass increases, so 
does the energy required to accelerate that mass. Significant acceleration due 
to gravity wouldn't have an effect until the two bodies are relatively close 
to each other.
>
>] The problem is that the amount of acceleration to add a given
>] amount of velocity increases exponentially to infinity.
>
>Doesn't gravity also increase in an exponential manner?

I thought gravity increased linearly with mass, but I might be wrong. However, 
the effects of gravity decrease quickly as the distance increases. I believe 
the effect of gravity decreases by the inverse of the distance squared. At a 
distance of 2 diameters, the accleration due to gravity of the Earth would be 
a fourth of that on the surface. at 10 diameters, it would be 1/100. So the 
majority of acceleration will occur at a very close distance, in a very short 
time. 

Steve