Posted by Barry, Suave MF at 4.19.96.69 on March 11, 2004 at 13:16:59:
In Reply to: Special relativity theory question posted by AshFan on March 11, 2004 at 13:10:07:
: If you were riding in a spaceship going 1mph LESS that the speed of light, and you walk forward on said ship at 3mph, what would happen to you? Would you end up in an infinite loop because by surpassing the speed of light you would go back in time? Would you just keep walking till you hit a wall?
No because only you would ONLY be going 3mp - not 1mp less than the speed of light plus 3mp - and be at the mercy of the ship's speed (1mp less than the speed of light).
: Same situation (ship going 1mph less that the speed of light) but this time, the ship fires projectiles from the forward guns.. what happens to the projectiles? Do they go back in time (back into the "clip") do they just achieve infinite mass and do some serious damage?
Unless the projectiles were going faster than the ship, they would just sit there (I think). Like when we fire rockets from the Earth into outer space, the initial take-off blast would have to be greater than Earth's gravitational pull or else there'd be no take-off.