- #1
Tac-Tics
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- 7
I was considering this the other day, and I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I want verification that I am not missing anything.
Suppose you are in a rocket ship and you want to travel, say, to a star the nearest galaxy. Is there a minimum amount of time that would require?
Since the speed of light is the ultimate barrier, a naively person familiar with the cosmic speed limit would say, yes. You have a set distance to travel and you have a maximum speed, so there is a minimum time required.
But when you take spatial contraction into account, things change. As you accelerate, the space begins to contract. Even after the star's relative velocity begins to cap out near c, the contraction continues, down to an arbitrarily small length. And so, it should be possible to reach the star in an arbitrarily short span of your ship's proper time.
Am I correct in this reasoning?
Suppose you are in a rocket ship and you want to travel, say, to a star the nearest galaxy. Is there a minimum amount of time that would require?
Since the speed of light is the ultimate barrier, a naively person familiar with the cosmic speed limit would say, yes. You have a set distance to travel and you have a maximum speed, so there is a minimum time required.
But when you take spatial contraction into account, things change. As you accelerate, the space begins to contract. Even after the star's relative velocity begins to cap out near c, the contraction continues, down to an arbitrarily small length. And so, it should be possible to reach the star in an arbitrarily short span of your ship's proper time.
Am I correct in this reasoning?