Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Slower Speed of Light

gamelab.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 108 posts

Re: A Slower Speed of Light

#41

Post by undershirt »

vlasta2 wrote: post #33
undershirt wrote: post #32

I don't understand why the colors are changing. Shouldn't the doppler effect not apply if the speed of light is the same for all observers?

With sound waves, your speed is added to the speed of sound and you hear a different note. With light, the speed remains at c, but perceived energy of the photons is still affected (energy must be preserved after all). And energy ~ wavelength ~ color. You can also think about it being one of these "zero (weight of a photon at rest) multiplied by infinity (energy of objects moving at c) gives a finite number (actual e…

So, the speed of an observer affects its perceived energy of light. How does "conservation of energy" apply? (I don't know what is contributing to the energy of this system.)

Re: A Slower Speed of Light

#44

Post by elwin »

undershirt wrote: post #41
vlasta2 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With sound waves, your speed is added to the speed of sound and you hear a different note. With light, the speed remains at c, but perceived energy of the photons is still affected (energy must be preserved after all). And energy ~ wavelength ~ color. You can also think about it being one of these "zero (weight of a photon at rest) multiplied by infinity (energy of objects moving at c) gives a finite number (actual e…

So, the speed of an observer affects its perceived energy of light. How does "conservation of energy" apply? (I don't know what is contributing to the energy of this system.)

Different observers will perceive different values for the photons' energy, but they will all observe that the total energy does not change.

Re: A Slower Speed of Light

#47

Post by aristidb »

It's _barely_ playable on my 2011 MBA. Seems like the limitation is on the CPU side though. Either it's fairly unoptimized, or this relativistic stuff is just really demanding.

It's quite awesome anyways. Funnily if you change direction, that alone triggers no relativistic effects.

Re: A Slower Speed of Light

#48

Post by Evbn »

StavrosK wrote: post #16
bluedanieru wrote: post #9

I may be off-base here, but isn't the length contraction backward? Things should appear closer as you approach the speed of light, not farther away. And, it should not matter if you move backward or forward to observe that effect, yet it does (try moving backwards). Also, relativistic motion doesn't appear to affect the movements of the other actors, though it's kind of hard to tell for certain.

With my very limited understanding, my impression is this: As you move in relativistic speeds, your eye hits more photos, even those going sideways (or backwards), because the photons at an angle are slower than your eye (imagine a car moving fast through the rain, even drops that go in the other direction will hit your windshield). Therefore, your field of vision grows (you can see things behind you), but only when…

Photons always travel at the speed of light in every frame of reference. Only the medium matters, not the observer's speed.

The observable change is the separation between photons (wavelength) caused by a moving source.

Re: A Slower Speed of Light

#49

Post by StavrosK »

Evbn wrote: post #48
StavrosK wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With my very limited understanding, my impression is this: As you move in relativistic speeds, your eye hits more photos, even those going sideways (or backwards), because the photons at an angle are slower than your eye (imagine a car moving fast through the rain, even drops that go in the other direction will hit your windshield). Therefore, your field of vision grows (you can see things behind you), but only when…

Photons always travel at the speed of light in every frame of reference. Only the medium matters, not the observer's speed. The observable change is the separation between photons (wavelength) caused by a moving source.

Photons traveling along an X axis are traveling along a Y axis at 0 m/s. If you're traveling along the Y axis, you're going faster.

Re: A Slower Speed of Light

#50

Post by sp332 »

bluedanieru wrote: post #9

I may be off-base here, but isn't the length contraction backward? Things should appear closer as you approach the speed of light, not farther away. And, it should not matter if you move backward or forward to observe that effect, yet it does (try moving backwards). Also, relativistic motion doesn't appear to affect the movements of the other actors, though it's kind of hard to tell for certain.

I think it might be time dilation. You intercept photons that were transmitted a bit back in time?
Post reply on HN