On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:52:04 +0000, Verde wrote:

Hi all,

I have always wondered

As life on earth withstands a constant acceleration of approx 10 ms now
if the speed of light is 299 792 458 m/s and there 3600 seconds in a
hour so it would only take 299 792 458 /10/3600 hours to reach that
speed , which is only 8325 hours, nearly a year. so if we could keep up
a constant acceleration of just 1g up for a year you would be at
lightspeed, surely we could do with todays technology.

so a year for acceleration and a year for deceleration, and we could be
amongst different stars..

why cant this be done even with robotic craft performing series of
slingshots around solarsystem to help with getting speed up and then off
on its own power, surely the answers we would gain would help all
theoretical physicists and open the door to new solarsystems, even if
just for remote observation. and surely we could actually test if we got
to even .5 c some of the theories which have permeated and developed
into branches of physics themselves.

just a question from a new reader to this group,

Newtonian mechanics is only an approximation that works well at the
relatively slow speeds we experience in our daily lives. Once you
reach an appreciable percentage of the speed of light, the
relativistic effects become noticeable. The faster you go, the larger
the effects. When you get really close, they become insurmountably
large.


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