if i could run faster than the speed of light...

[elsparko]

if i started running from where i am now faster than the speed of light could i bump into myself and trip myself up before i begin running?

 

[Deleted member 26818]

No.

 

[telectrix]

no, because before catching up with your previous self, you'd change into a turnip.

 

[Wilko]

To exceed the speed of light by running I think you'd either be folding space with the Holtzman Generator or engaging the Improbability Drive. But neither leads those time warping tachyon particles the Borg use, sorry.

 

[Kamikaze]

With no machete of reason could I hack a trail for wanting to run into myself. I’ve misused the starships time dilation device loads of times to sneak another weekend in or have another pint at lunch time, but never have I run around the block to kick myself up the ar$e.

 

[littlespark]

Don't try and break the laws of physics on your own. This is a job for a professional

 

[telectrix]

you will need to train in switzerland. get in the tube and when you can outrun the various particles that are bombarding your arse, then you are ready to proceed with your experiment.

 

[Rpa07]

If you do manage to go fast enough - tell your other self to stop posting the inane caveman drawings THEN time travel would be worth it!
(Exclusion clause - I love you @elsparko )

 

[Bobster]

you will need to train in switzerland. get in the tube and when you can outrun the various particles that are bombarding your arse, then you are ready to proceed with your experiment.

View attachment 42594

There's an interesting story of one of the scientists working in the collided had his head in the path if the proton beam as it fired up. He survived, just.

 

[Rpa07]

Obviously a bit slack on the old H+S protocol in Toblerone munching land - me thinks!

There's an interesting story of one of the scientists working in the collided had his head in the path if the proton beam as it fired up. He survived, just.

If that incident made him into a superhero what would his powers be?

 

[Squid]

you'd change into a turnip.

I thought that had already happened yonks ago...........

 

[pirate]

If you could control your speed then maybe you could pass yourself and get younger...
if you succeed, try for 1973, and check out wee Jenny Morrison from East Kibride...

 

[littlespark]

Boy 1;- My dad's so fast, he can kick a ball at one end of the football pitch, run down and save it from going in the goal!

Boy 2;- My dad's so fast, he can throw a cricket ball, run down to the wickets and hit it with his bat!

Boy 3;- My dad's so fast, he works for the council!

Boys 1 & 2;- Huh?

Boy 3;- Yeah! He finishes work at 5 o-clock, and he's home by half 3!

 

[littlespark]

no, because before catching up with your previous self, you'd change into a turnip.

….and become President of the USA

 

[Darkwood]

If you understand and agree with the laws of physics then the question could never be actually answered, if a particle with mass tried to get to the speed of light then its mass rises precipitously so by the time it get to that magic figure it would be of infinite mass and require infinite energy to move it which means there is not enough in the universe, in answer to this then you would have to change the laws of physics to achieve it thus our understanding and logic on the matter would dissolve and without difined theories and laws to guide us we cannot guess the outcome.
The laws of physics stops this from ever happening and so would logic in that sense hence theoretically there are too many problems with actually going back in time and seeing yourself although travelling into the future is and has be shown to be possible by simple changing how time moves for the observer.

 

[Bobster]

Obviously a bit slack on the old H+S protocol in Toblerone munching land - me thinks!

If that incident made him into a superhero what would his powers be?

After just quickly looking the incident up, it wasn't at CERN, it happened in the soviet union in the late 70's.

Half of his face paralysed, lost his sense of smell and has suffered seizures the rest of his life.

Some could say he was still lucky, it was estimated he received a dose of radiation far higher than should be fatal, doctors believe that as it was such a narrow path of radiation through his head is the reason for his survival.

 

[Deleted member 26818]

Aren’t laws just guidelines rather than a list of dos and don’ts?

 

[Kamikaze]

After just quickly looking the incident up, it wasn't at CERN, it happened in the soviet union in the late 70's.

Half of his face paralysed, lost his sense of smell and has suffered seizures the rest of his life.

Some could say he was still lucky, it was estimated he received a dose of radiation far higher than should be fatal, doctors believe that as it was such a narrow path of radiation through his head is the reason for his survival.

As it happens, I’ve been trawling through the archives to find some information about MRI scanners for Pete999’s Chernobyl thread but to no avail. I did however come across a study that found that no woman has ever shot her husband while he was doing the dishes. I wonder how many partials they had to smash together to find that out? Anyways, I did come across the story of Anatoli Bugorski who was working on the U70 synchrotron when he stuck his head in the path of a proton beam. He saw a flash of light brighter than a thousand suns but survived the ordeal. That is one way of turning yourself into a human guinea pig I suppose. I hate to think the kind of tests they performed on him over the years. Mind you, the bragging rights will have turned him into a Soviet hero.

 

[Squid]

….and become President of the USA

Obama was a turnip?

 

[Bobster]

As it happens, I’ve been trawling through the archives to find some information about MRI scanners for Pete999’s Chernobyl thread but to no avail. I did however come across a study that found that no woman has ever shot her husband while he was doing the dishes. I wonder how many partials they had to smash together to find that out? Anyways, I did come across the story of Anatoli Bugorski who was working on the U70 synchrotron when he stuck his head in the path of a proton beam. He saw a flash of light brighter than a thousand suns but survived the ordeal. That is one way of turning yourself into a human guinea pig I suppose. I hate to think the kind of tests they performed on him over the years. Mind you, the bragging rights will have turned him into a Soviet hero.

This is the same incident I was referring to, I don't believe many if any other person has been struck by a proton beam from a super collidor.

 

[Squid]

When I was an apprentice I worked on the extension to the cyclotron building at Hammersmith Hospital, was an interesting piece of kit, 3' thick solid concrete doors covered the entrance, made isotopes for cancer patients.

 

[Darkwood]

Pointless/interesting fact of the day

Incidentally the extreme bright light he perceived is mirrored by experiences of astronauts these flashes of light are collectively known as phosphenes where neurons along the the visual cortex and in the brain are stimulated by means other than carrying the signal created by a photon of light. They were well documented on the Apollo missions especially those doing high radiation runs.

 

[Kamikaze]

Travelling faster than the speed of light is kinda like sex! Jam it in the hole and pull the trigger. Foreplay optional!

 

[elsparko]

science is an engima wrapped in riddles wrapped in seamless kevlar

i love a good paradox


i personally do not think travelling backwards through time will ever be possible, forward relative to other on planet earth, is possible but not feasible

 

[Darkwood]

science is an engima wrapped in riddles wrapped in seamless kevlar

i love a good paradox


i personally do not think travelling backwards through time will ever be possible, forward relative to other on planet earth, is possible but not feasible

Depends on how you look at this, technically you are incorrect, any object moving faster relative to another object experiences time slower, people on a commercial jet flying high above are actually growing older slower than those on ground but given the small speed differences relative to cosmology values you will not ever conceive it, to note the SatNav's use atomic clocks that have to be corrected for the speed difference relative to the user looking up where he is on earth, if we did not allow for this compensation then the technology could not work... it's a mind bending concept to believe time runs slower for the SatNavs then it does for anything on earth but that is why Einstein is one if not thee most famous scientist out there.

 

[elsparko]

Depends on how you look at this, technically you are incorrect, any object moving faster relative to another object experiences time slower, people on a commercial jet flying high above are actually growing older slower than those on ground but given the small speed differences relative to cosmology values you will not ever conceive it, to note the SatNav's use atomic clocks that have to be corrected for the speed difference relative to the user looking up where he is on earth, if we did not allow for this compensation then the technology could not work... it's a mind bending concept to believe time runs slower for the SatNavs then it does for anything on earth but that is why Einstein is one if not thee most famous scientist out there.

i mean something noticeable like years, like if i went away for a year for and the earth had aged 50 years

 

[telectrix]

i mean something noticeable like years, like if i went away for a year for and the earth had aged 50 years

are you still here?or are you chasing your arse back to 1873?

 

[elsparko]

are you still here?or are you chasing your arse back to 1873?

it may be possible to see yourself with hair again if we can figure this out

 

[marconi]

if i started running from where i am now faster than the speed of light could i bump into myself and trip myself up before i begin running?

You might enjoy studying 'causality' which says that:

Causality is the relationship between causes and effects. It is considered to be fundamental to all natural science, especially physics. Causality is also a topic studied from the perspectives of philosophy and statistics. Causality means that an effect cannot occur from a cause which is not in the back (past) light cone of that event. Similarly, a cause cannot have an effect outside its front (future) light cone.

Also, how many runners are there in your thought experiment? You? Your faster you? You and your faster you?.......Are matter and energy being conserved in your experiment?

 

[elsparko]

You might enjoy studying 'causality' which says that:

Causality is the relationship between causes and effects. It is considered to be fundamental to all natural science, especially physics. Causality is also a topic studied from the perspectives of philosophy and statistics. Causality means that an effect cannot occur from a cause which is not in the back (past) light cone of that event. Similarly, a cause cannot have an effect outside its front (future) light cone.

Also, how many runners are there in your thought experiment? You? Your faster you? You and your faster you?.......Are matter and energy being conserved in your experiment?

just me, if im running faster than light then i should be able to run into myself, or at least see myself begin running (running round a sphere and not in a straight line)

would the "me" that i run up behind be solid matter though?

 

[marconi]

elsparko - good man for making the effort to ponder some hard things about the Universe and the physics which describes it.

I am the one to tell you that space and time are not two distinct abstract things unrelated, unconnected or independent of one another. Eventually you had to know this - sorry to disappoint you.

As Einstein said - 'space and time are modes by which we think but not the reality in which with exist'. This is the gist of special relativity.

Gravity Probe B - Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers - https://einstein.stanford.edu/content/relativity/q909.html

 

[elsparko]

elsparko - good man for making the effort to ponder some hard things about the Universe and the physics which describes it.

I am the one to tell you that space and time are not two distinct abstract things unrelated, unconnected or independent of one another. Eventually you had to know this - sorry to disappoint you.

As Einstein said - 'space and time are modes by which we think but not the reality in which with exist'. This is the gist of special relativity.

Gravity Probe B - Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers - https://einstein.stanford.edu/content/relativity/q909.html

yeah, the universe is certainly a strange place

 

[elsparko]

like infinity, it technically is not something quantifiable, there is no number bigger than infinity, but if you say infinity +1 there is a bigger number but both are essentially the same

 

[marconi]

yeah, the universe is certainly a strange place

Poor yourself a dram of your favourite whisky, and when it is dark look up at the sky and toast the mystery and wonder of the 'whatever it is' we live in. And Who willed its existence.

 

[marconi]

like infinity, it technically is not something quantifiable, there is no number bigger than infinity, but if you say infinity +1 there is a bigger number but both are essentially the same

And there different types/sizes of infinity:

Strange but True: Infinity Comes in Different Sizes - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-infinity-comes-in-different-sizes/

 

[Darkwood]

just me, if im running faster than light then i should be able to run into myself, or at least see myself begin running (running round a sphere and not in a straight line)

would the "me" that i run up behind be solid matter though?

Forgetting the impossible task of doing this for a moment -
No it wouldn't be a solid you, you are only seeing information of the past IE like when we look at the stars at night, the light you see is like a video or photo of what was and thus is not solid, like in VR when you believe there is a real person in front of you but it is merely an impression of the past in the form of light.

 

[pirate]

Fascinating stuff this! Thanks particularly to Darkwood and Marconi...so, I guess wee Jenny's safe after all?

 

[littlespark]

We're all electricians here (most of us), Surely we can come up with the 1.21 gigawatts and the 88mph needed to travel back in time.

 

[Kamikaze]

We're all electricians here (most of us), Surely we can come up with the 1.21 gigawatts and the 88mph needed to travel back in time.

You draw us a picture of the device on the back of a big enough check and we will make it happen.

 

[static zap]

Ignoring time travel (and several other laws-getting broken)
(No. of Gs splatting you like a bug !)
, you could run thru your image ,as it tries to catch up with you.
But there will be only one solid version of you -

 

[Kamikaze]

Wasn’t there once a cowboy that could shoot faster than his shadow?

 

[telectrix]

if he could possibly run that fast, he'd meet up with his previous self and vanish up his own arse hole. that would contravene newton's 4th law..... when the ---- hits the fan, the good get going.

 

[Darkwood]

I deleted the last few posts, @elsparko - this is a very interesting and mind provoking thread so let's not drag it down with crude toilet humour please.
It is a subject you may have guessed that I have an interest in as I love the complexity and mind challenging field that is quantum physics, if you really want your mind stretch then just ask and I'll add more input to keep the thread burning

 

[Darkwood]

Fascinating stuff this! Thanks particularly to Darkwood and Marconi...so, I guess wee Jenny's safe after all?

After 40yrs of been interested in the cosmology, quantum physics and general sciences I have amassed quite a nerd level knowledge of how nature works ...
There exists only one greater challenge than the Theory of Everything (ToE) for man to understand and that is a woman's mind, I went for quantum because I want to at least have a chance to understand it in my lifetime.

 

[ruston]

After 40yrs of been interested in the cosmology, quantum physics and general sciences I have amassed quite a nerd level knowledge of how nature works ...
There exists only one greater challenge than the Theory of Everything (ToE) for man to understand and that is a woman's mind, I went for quantum because I want to at least have a chance to understand it in my lifetime.

A man was walking along a Florida beach and stumbled across an old lamp. He picked it up and rubbed it, and out popped a genie.

The genie said, "OK, You released me from the lamp, blah blah blah. This is the fourth time this month, and I'm getting a little sick of these wishes so you can forget about three... You only get one wish!"

The man sat, and thought about it for a while and said, "I've always wanted to go to Hawaii, but I'm scared to fly, and I get very seasick. Could you build me a bridge to Hawaii so I can drive over there to visit?"

The genie laughed and said, "That's impossible!!!

Think of the logistics of that! How would the supports ever reach the bottom of the Pacific? Think of how much concrete -- how much steel!! No, think of another wish."

The man said, "OK, I'll try to think of a really good wish."

Finally, he said, "I've been married and divorced four times. My wives always said that I don't care and that I'm insensitive.

So, I wish that I could understand women, know how they feel inside, and what they're thinking when they give me the silent treatment. Know why they're crying, know what they really want when they say "nothing,", know how to make them truly happy."

The genie said, "Do you want that bridge to be two lanes or four

 

[pirate]

How interesting...
Delete some crazy crap about toilet humour, pontificate (eloquently) about the higher level of quantum physics, and then make a joke about the mind of a woman?
...and that's not censorship?
Well...to be fair, I didn't see the deleted content, but I would hope we could all go with the flow from time to time...there are so many threads on here that go so massively off-topic that it's possibly a very difficult task to moderate...
I do believe that some have specialist knowledge that is outwith the ken of the average contributor, but suppressing views from those who have more humour than specialist knowledge is a questionable practice...
I am here to learn...
...but not to be censored except in the case of manifest transgression.
Just saying...

 

[static zap]

Just beginning to ponder if getting ahead of your self , will have any quantum consequences.
(at that speed it will be better to look over your
shoulder , than do any option that is not a straight line )

 

[pirate]

So many responses spring to mind, Static!
I'm always getting ahead of myself...to my discomfiture, obviously!
Engage brain before opening mouth is a good rule for me!
Better to remain silent, and be thought a fool...than to speak up, and prove it beyond doubt...
One day, I'll take my own advice, if I ever get to travel at the speed of light, because by then I'll have caught up with myself...ermmm...I think?

 

[Strima]

What is this run thing you speak of? Sounds like hard work...

 

[Darkwood]

How interesting...
Delete some crazy crap about toilet humour, pontificate (eloquently) about the higher level of quantum physics, and then make a joke about the mind of a woman?
...and that's not censorship?
Well...to be fair, I didn't see the deleted content, but I would hope we could all go with the flow from time to time...there are so many threads on here that go so massively off-topic that it's possibly a very difficult task to moderate...
I do believe that some have specialist knowledge that is outwith the ken of the average contributor, but suppressing views from those who have more humour than specialist knowledge is a questionable practice...
I am here to learn...
...but not to be censored except in the case of manifest transgression.
Just saying...

This was not a censorship response it was more about stopping the thread going off course, nothing said warranted anything more like an infraction and I don't have any direct issue with what was posted but we do take posts down sometimes when they drag the level down, from experience this usually sends threads into the ground as people react and start playing the same fiddle losing the original level of conversation, I do find it a strange reaction of yours and the passion you put into your post given you didn't see the posts removed.
PS the posts on the woman's mind was just a quip based on a response from Richard Feyman a leading American physicist which I should have made clear, I enjoy humour even close to the bone stuff but like I said I only trimmed the thread to keep it on track, my quip was part of a longer thread which was on subject.