Re: relativity? paradox?


"Ulala" <zhulien..REMOVETHIS..@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:438d8000$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hi,
>
> I have been thinking after reading the Physics FAQ the following.
>
> I guess there is so much to swallow and I can never know everything, so
> I would like to toss in a few questions not specifically with the hope
> of a straight answer, but moreso a reference to which theories to read
> up on (not really interested in forumulas or proving the theory though).
>
>
> If I take an object (eg: myself). I am the observer and I have a mass
> (assume whichever interpretation of mass you like). I stand still (from
> my observation) but I am moving at a high velocity because I am on Earth
> which is moving at high speed around it's orbit. The earth is in our
> solar system which is also moving around. Our galaxy is moving around.
> Perhaps there are clusters of galaxies that move around. Relative
> to myself I am still, relative to Earth I am still. My mass in relation
> to Earth can be calculated, but is this my true mass considering all the
> moving around that's going on? Now, given the unknown levels of
> components of motion (could it be infinate?) it would suggest that it
> isn't possibly infinate because I would be approaching the speed of
> light just by standing still (observing myself). Given a finate known
> number of components of motion, perhaps a true actual velocity could be
> calculated and therefore my true mass also?

One more FAQ entry to read carefully:
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/mass.html

>
> Another way of thinking about this could be if I had a train moving
> forward at 100km/h on Earth, on it there was a smaller train travelling
> at 100km/h (ie: it is 200km/h if Earth is the observer),

And another FAQ entry:
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/velocity.html

Exercise 1:
At which speed would this smaller train be travelling with
respect to the first train, in order to have speed 200 km/h
with respect to the Earth?

Exercise 2:
At which speed would the next level train be travelling with
respect to the second train, in order to have speed 300 km/h
with respect to the Earth?

> on this smaller
> train was another smaller train travelling at 100km/h, how many trains
> upon would we need to travel at the speed of light? Given that Earth is
> an observer of the first train, but the Earth itself is in a
> multi-leveled state of motion. Would such a calculation become
> paradoxical as it is supposedly impossible to move at the speed of
> light, so regardless of how many trains upon trains there are, we would
> get to a point that the bottom train could just not move because the top
> train would approach the speed of light if it did?

After having made the above exercises, how would you
answer your own question?

Dirk Vdm


.

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