Perhaps my ballpark figure was wrong:
Oh-My-God particle - Wikipedia
That whopper is above the G-Z-K limit. But I sure don't want to get hit by one.
Straight through you that one.
I wonder how many high energy particles humans intercept on a daily basis?
Off the top of my head I think with 2/3 plus 2/3 it would come out to about 8/9 lightspeed relative.
Nice slideshow on Cosmic Ray detection. Starting in the middle.
An Amazing Discovery
I was out Astronomering tonight. Here's Orion with Sirius bottom left.
Orion (constellation) - Wikipedia
I need a better camera.
Nice slideshow on Cosmic Ray detection. Starting in the middle.
An Amazing Discovery
I was out Astronomering tonight. Here's Orion with Sirius bottom left.
Orion (constellation) - Wikipedia
I need a better camera.
Attachments
You're not too far off by my calculations, Steve.Off the top of my head I think with 2/3 plus 2/3 it would come out to about 8/9 lightspeed relative.
But how can that be? More than half + more than half is more than one! Now that's darn good math!
Disco Pete
Sorry for the delayed response. The photon took 13 billion years to get here from our slow point of view. The photon travels at light speed, and so experiences no time. If it experiences no the, it can't "experience" distance either, and I guess would seem to be one particle comprising only itself. Not even a boundary, because that would take time to realize distance. 🙂
Sorry for not typing the reference, but hitting the reply button isn't displaying quotes right now
Sorry for the delayed response. The photon took 13 billion years to get here from our slow point of view. The photon travels at light speed, and so experiences no time. If it experiences no the, it can't "experience" distance either, and I guess would seem to be one particle comprising only itself. Not even a boundary, because that would take time to realize distance. 🙂
Sorry for not typing the reference, but hitting the reply button isn't displaying quotes right now
No, it is not obvious at all. Any particle of this universe moves at C, either along time (massive at rest) or space (massless) or a combination thereof. So whatever that travels at speed other than C is not of this universe, who could tell us what experience it has in other universes, each with a different set of physical law?
False logic. By the same reasoning, when we stay still in space then we are moving at C through time. When we do not experience space (because we stay put and do not go anywhere), we can't experience time either.
When you are moving at high speed, your entire surroundings appear to be moving relative to you, and time in your surroundings appears to be passing slowly relative to you.
When you are a photon travelling at the sped of light, your surroundings appear to be travelling at the speed of light relative to you, and no time at all passes in your surroundings relative to you.
All that exists for a photon is the interaction that formed it and the interaction that destroys it i.e. its emission and absorption points.
From our frame of reference, we can calculate the distance between its emission and absorption point, but not from the photon's reference frame.
When you are a photon travelling at the sped of light, your surroundings appear to be travelling at the speed of light relative to you, and no time at all passes in your surroundings relative to you.
All that exists for a photon is the interaction that formed it and the interaction that destroys it i.e. its emission and absorption points.
From our frame of reference, we can calculate the distance between its emission and absorption point, but not from the photon's reference frame.
There's a very interesting discussion on 'The Nature of the In-Flight Photon' here:
http://quasars.org/photon.txt
It explores geodesics, time quanta and wave-particle duality - too much to summarise here!
http://quasars.org/photon.txt
It explores geodesics, time quanta and wave-particle duality - too much to summarise here!
Not quite the same logic. How is distance traversed or experienced, if no time passes?
And how is anything at rest in an expanding universe?
You are ignoring one of the basic tenets of the special theory of relativity i.e. that no material object can exceed the speed of light.
According to the tried and tested theory (note: not a hypothesis) by the time an object reached the speed of light its mass would be infinite. To accelerate an infinite mass beyond the speed of light would require an infinite amount of energy. An infinite amount of energy is unobtainable, hence matter ('we') can not exceed the speed of light.
Interesting. I feel a photon, whatever it is, is travelling at the speed of light, to our best observation. Since time has stopped for it at that velocity, it would be unable to observe anything outside itself. Relative to itself, nothing could happen, or seem to exist.
That only applies to velocities which are much less than the speed of light i.e. everyday velocities ranging from walking to flying in a jet plane. We can apply our familiar, everyday arithmetic to non-relativistic speeds so two objects, each receeding from each other at 30mph, will have a relative speed of 60mph.
However, when objects travel at velocities which are a substantial fraction of the speed of light, like the electrons in an X-ray machine, we have to take into account the special theory of relativity. If two objects receed from each other at relativistic speeds, their relative velocity can never exceed the speed of light. That's the mathemetics of the special theory of relativity and it is tried and tested. One may have a different opinion, but it would not stand up to mathematical scrutiny.
All that exists for a photon is the interaction that formed it and the interaction that destroys it.
In other words, nothing exists for a photon between being emitted by matter and being absorbed by matter.
That would mean that darkness can not exist for a photon.
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