How many G's would you experience going speed of light?

Page 2 - Seeking answers about space? Join the Space community: the premier source of space exploration, innovation, and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier.
Status
Not open for further replies.
2

2844az

Guest
Bill, His name is Leonard Susskind (born 1940) is the Felix Bloch professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University in the field of string theory and quantum field theory. Susskind is widely regarded as one of the fathers of string theory for his early contributions to the String Theory model of particle physics. He vehemetly disagreed with Hawkings theory that information is lost in Black holes. He spent 10 years trying to disprove him. He believes that he did. Gary
 
S

SpeedFreek

Guest
It is good to point out these things vanDivX! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />I admit I sometimes get a little too enthusiastic about the subject and have a hard time deciding what to include and what not to include in my posts. Usually what happens is my first answer in a thread is a long and rambling explanation, and then the OP or somebody else asks specific questions about it which can be answered individually.<br /><br />They say too much knowledge is a dangerous thing and I would have to agree with that, but sometimes if you give too <i>little</i> information it leaves a person harbouring misconceptions that limit any further understanding until someone explains it to them properly. But I do tend to put too much in, for sure.. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Take my post last night in the "looking back in time thread". Somebody asked how we can possibly see all the way back to the big-bang, and they were talking in terms of the big-bang as an explosion. How do you even <i>start</i> to answer that question? There are so many concepts that really <i>need</i> to be included - the nature of metric expansion, the changing rate of that expansion, the speed of light, the earliest possible observation (CMBR), the angular diameter-distance relationship of galaxies, the redshift-distance relationship of galaxies, the relationship between gravitationally bound systems and the expansion... <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>
 
A

adrenalynn

Guest
I bristle strongly when someone claims to know what someone else is capable of understanding.<br /><br />If the OP doesn't understand the explanation, then the OP can ask questions or simply say they don't understand the explanation.<br /><br />You can't possibly know what the OP will or will not comprehend. I feel it's the height of arrogance and insult to decide that for them. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>
 
P

pirated

Guest
There are 3 g's in "<font color="red">g</font>in<font color="red">g</font>the speed of li<font color="red">g</font>t"<br /><br />thank you very much... <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>Peace. </p><p><font color="#33cccc">-------------------------------------------------------------------</font> <strong><font color="#993300">I'm a Rock!</font></strong></p><p><font color="#33cccc">Little Johnny was a scientist. Little Johnny is no more. For what he thought was H2O was H2SO4.</font></p> </div>
 
A

adrenalynn

Guest
I sit corrected. <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>
 
C

cpuguy1

Guest
If you had your completely prepared ship in space, pointed in the direction you want to go and took off at 1g ... my calculations show you would get to .9C in a little more than 318days.<br />(318 days, 10 hours, 34 minutes, 50.7 seconds)<br />BUT if you continued your 1g acceleration for 520days - you would be at 146% the speed of light.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2">The polarization of the alpha wave's primary phase of the modified parallel cross section of your brain will confirm you are not thinking up to your potential.  -  </font><font size="2">Professor West</font></p> </div>
 
Q

qso1

Guest
Your a bit closer to what I figured up but mine was 250 days or thereabouts and I think I had 1.1 g at that accelleration rate. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
S

shadow735

Guest
<font color="orange"><br />seems like the 'shadow' is totally lost as he stopped responding, I am afraid speedfreek's explanations are way outside the OP abilities <br /></font><br />Nope VanDivX its called end of the year festivities, also not sure what you meant by outside my abilities. I am not stupid but then again I am not a math or physics genius.<br /> While I understand speed freaks explanation as well as everyone elses. I think everyone was digging too deeply into my question. I should probably define parameters when I ask a question.<br /> All I wanted to know is how many G’s would a person experience upon instant (lets say an instant is one second) acceleration to light speed. Just address the g forces attributed with the instant acceleration to light speed (no comments on how light speed isn’t possible I know that) I should have worded it that way<br /><br /><br /><font color="orange"><br />speedfreeks explanation <br />In reply to: <br /> <br />"How long is an instant? To me, that is no time at all, an instant change from one speed to another. In that case, you would be accelerating by an infinite amount and thus would feel infinite G force!" <br /> <br />is not the way to explain it, all you get is the guy is going to ask next how many Gs is 'infinite G' force, it is totally misleading because people take infinite not as something unphysical (that's like talking about square circle) but simply some very great amount<br /></font><br />Infinite is a number so large which makes it immeasurable <br /><br /><font color="orange"><br />well yes, but not in a way that the thread starter would understand, he made it plenty clear that he has severe problems with most basic facts of physics<br /></font><br />On that point you are right, I do understand some terminology mainly from watching the show universe and many many other nova, and hyperspace and other documentaries but I am just starting to read some books that Hawkings wrote. I have no bas <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
M

MeteorWayne

Guest
Then you calculationas are incorrect.<br /><br />Have you figured in the increased mass your vehicle would have as it approached light speed? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>
 
S

SpeedFreek

Guest
<i>Speedfreek I would love to sit with you an pic your brain, All of this stuff interests me greatly, but my one hang up is I doubt I could grasp mathematical calculations, I am not good at math (well actually I don’t know when I took geometry I had to drop out of it because I was beyond lost, but I aced Algebra {most likely because I had an awesome teacher that made if fun and easy to learn} ) so who knows maybe now that I am interested that it would be easier to learn and understand. </i><br /><br />Would it surprise you to learn that Algebra is my mathematical limit too? (I didn't <i>ace</i> it either!) <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />You don't actually need to <i>understand</i> the maths to understand these concepts, although it certainly helps if you do. The problem I have come across is that there seems to be a trend in cosmology - the mathematicians aren't always the best people to explain what the maths means in <i>real</i> terms and the media often end up misrepresenting the concept somewhat by simplifying it too much. What I try to do is bridge that gap where I can, but without the maths it leads to very wordy long winded postings!<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000">_______________________________________________<br /></font><font size="2"><em>SpeedFreek</em></font> </p> </div>
 
W

weeman

Guest
That makes me feel better <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> I never did well with Algebra, I did much better in Geometry. <br /><br />I am actually kind of looking forward to taking Math in college, it's the last General Studies credit that I have to take. Although, I will need to study before I ever even go into the class!<br /><br />If I were more of a math wiz, I would have been an Astrophysics major. I suppose I just doubt myself too much <img src="/images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>
 
R

richalex

Guest
As I understand it, you could accelerate at 1g indefinitely, but you will never exceed c. Instead, you get time dilation effects that become more and more extreme. The velocity of c represents a limit that can be approached asymptotically, but never reached. All the while, you would feel an acceleration of 1 g.
 
V

vandivx

Guest
ok you understand speedfreeks posts as anyone else, why then you word your post as someone who doesn't have the very basic knowledge of physics? on forums you are judged by what you write and only by that and that is doubly true on science fan forums (never mind real science forums)<br />it doesn't pay to think one thing and write another as you apparently are doing (because or your claim that you understand the issue but your query doesn't support that claim)<br /><br /><font color="orange">also not sure what you meant by outside my abilities. I am not stupid but then again I am not a math or physics genius. </font><br />outside one's ability doesn't imply stupidity, please don't read into my posting what is not there, suppose five year old kid asks about gravity and acceleration which would indicate extremely bright child but that still doesn't mean that explanations like speedfreek's here would be appropriate to his abilities (not talking here about exceptional genius child who studied physics at that age already), in fact they would clearly be outside his abilities, adults even those with titles to their name often ask questions about physics that everybody who has had phys101 knows but you have to judge their abilites and answer accordingly, some explanations are beyond abilities of PHDs if they didn't earn the title in physical sciences<br /><br />I take your answer to me without offence because I realize how easy it was to misinterpret my post especially when you likely didn't read any of my posts on these forums before, however there is no such way out for adrenalyn, he should have known better than put dog's head on my shoulders, I realize I do not come across as too sympathetic and friendly on these forums, that is not my strong side and I know it but I should hope I do not warrrant such treatment (interpretation of my post in worst light)<br /><br />as to that genius comment, nobody here is one <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br /><br />one secon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
S

shadow735

Guest
There was no anger to your post or no anger meant in mine.<br />I really dont think my questions was answered though.<br />I re-worded my question in my response to speedfreak that I wanted to know how many G's one would experience if they accelerated to the speed of light in one second.<br />I really dont care if the speed of light is not possible, I already stated I know that. I wanted to know "If" the speed of light were reachable(as in lets pretend that it was possible) how many G's one would feel in the instant (if that instant was one second) of acceleration to light speed, once light speed was attained you would feel nothing. What I want to know is in the 0-60 milli sec how many g's would there be.<br />When I say I know physics I am referring to common sense beyond that I am still learning but sometimes I need examples to understand.<br />Some of speekfreaks answers I need to re-read a few times to get the meaning. Even then I can grasp but am not comfortable about it.<br />I hope that makes sense. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
M

Mee_n_Mac

Guest
Since you can't get to C, will you settle for 99.9 % of C ?<br /><br />If so, and you keep your acceleration constant for the entire 1 second (despite the ever increasing power demands), then you'd experience about 3.05 x 10^7 G's for that one second. That's 30.5 million G's.<br /><br />I'd say that it would "push you back into the seat". <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br /><br />1 G = 32.2 ft/sec/sec<br /><br />V=A*t or A (acceleration) = velocity / time ; t = 1 second<br /><br />.999 * 186,000 mi/sec * 5280 (to get into ft/sec) = 9.81 x 10^8 ft/sec/sec <br /><br />dividing the above by 32.2 (to put into G's) gets you the above answer <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask not what your Forum Software can do do on you,</font></p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask it to, please for the love of all that's Holy, <strong>STOP</strong> !</font></p> </div>
 
S

shadow735

Guest
<font color="orange"><br />30.5 million G's.</font><br />Omg what effect would that have on human flesh, wouldnt it liquify your body or worse? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
Y

yevaud

Guest
You would be a thin smear of Raspberry Jam on the aft bulkhead so fast, you wouldn't know what hit you. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>
 
D

derekmcd

Guest
Far worse, I imagine. The atoms in your body would be under such a crushing force that the only remaining trace of you would be gamma rays. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>
 
L

lampblack

Guest
<font color="yellow">The atoms in your body would be under such a crushing force that the only remaining trace of you would be gamma rays.</font><br /><br />What a colorful way to go out, though! <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#0000ff"><strong>Just tell the truth and let the chips fall...</strong></font> </div>
 
W

weeman

Guest
<font color="yellow"> What a colorful way to go out, though! </font><br /><br />Absolutely! By the time you hit that speed and that amount of G's, you'd have gone straight to plaid <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>
 
K

kewell_

Guest
<font color="yellow"> Actually, when you are falling through a gravitational field, as falling into a black hole, you will feel no g-force at all. Additionally, given a sufficiently massive black hole, the tidal forces at the event horizon would not pull you apart. </font><br /><br />If you arent torn apart what would happen to you then? I thought space-time is stretched AND your physical being within that space-time is stretched. <br />
 
R

richalex

Guest
<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>I thought space-time is stretched AND your physical being within that space-time is stretched.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote>As I understand it, you would be stretched because there would be a powerful gravitational field pulling all across your body. Another way of saying it is, you would be tidally stretched, just like our Moon would if it were close to Earth. And, just like Moon, gravity would try to pull you apart, as the pull from one side of the object (the black ahead of you) pulled on one side of you, while the other side of the object pulled the other way on the other side of you. <br /><br />At high gravity or acceleration, space contracts, not expands. That would slightly off-set the tidal forces, I suppose. Eventually, tidal forces would overcome that effect.
 
D

derekmcd

Guest
"<i>If you arent torn apart what would happen to you then?</i>"<br /><br />It depends on how steep the gravity well is. Imagine an elastic roller coaster beginning its descent. The front car will experience faster acceleration than the tail end. The closer you are to the singularity the steeper the gravity well.<br /><br />Even here on earth, your feet experience stronger gravitational forces than your head as per the inverse square law... unless you're laying down of course <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts