Fascinating Stuff
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Did you know that if you run fast enough into an indestructible 20ft garage with a rigid 40ft pole, you can get the pole in the garage?
depends on how much mass the garage has. It may be indestructable, but that doesn't mean it can't move. The pole might rip it right off the ground if moving fast enough.
Google around "The faster you go, the shorter you are."
If you are going fast enough, the pole will fit in the garage.
Of course, whether it keeps its shape when it hits the back of the garage is another question...
If you are going fast enough, the pole will fit in the garage.
Of course, whether it keeps its shape when it hits the back of the garage is another question...
oh whoops nevermind
I imagined that wrong.
What does the indestructable garage have to do with anything then? Couldn't it just as easily be a paper bag?
I imagined that wrong.
What does the indestructable garage have to do with anything then? Couldn't it just as easily be a paper bag?
You might poke a few holes in the back of the paper bag if you did that.
-Albatross
-Albatross
No I mean
If the whole point here is that moving fast makes you shorter... what does it matter whether or not you're moving into something indestructable? How would that make any difference in how short you are?
bah nevermind.
If the whole point here is that moving fast makes you shorter... what does it matter whether or not you're moving into something indestructable? How would that make any difference in how short you are?
bah nevermind.
@firedraco Of course, I could equally well have said an indestructible paper bag or an indestructible hot air balloon or whatever. It's just that an indestructible garage sounds just slightly less implausible ;)
EDIT: @Duoas
Hence the rigidness of the rod ;)
@Disch, the reasons I required the garage to be indestrucible are:
1) if you and a rigid rod run into the back wall of a garage at something like (2/3) the speed of light, it's going to have to be fairly indestructible
2) once you have had the garage door shut just as you enter and then stop, the rod will return to it's 'original length' so if the garage is not indestructible, the rod might burst out of it in some way
@All I will just say now that I was hoping this would be misinterpreted as an April Fools joke. But sadly it seems that the people who bothered to read it knew too much about special relativity... I'll have to try harder next yeah with an April Fools Fools
EDIT: @Duoas
| whether it keeps its shape when it hits the back of the garage is another question... |
Hence the rigidness of the rod ;)
@Disch, the reasons I required the garage to be indestrucible are:
1) if you and a rigid rod run into the back wall of a garage at something like (2/3) the speed of light, it's going to have to be fairly indestructible
2) once you have had the garage door shut just as you enter and then stop, the rod will return to it's 'original length' so if the garage is not indestructible, the rod might burst out of it in some way
@All I will just say now that I was hoping this would be misinterpreted as an April Fools joke. But sadly it seems that the people who bothered to read it knew too much about special relativity... I'll have to try harder next yeah with an April Fools Fools
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I knew you were playing with April Fools...
You did not state that the rod itself was indestructable, so with all that energy present when it fits into the garage, and the sudden change in speed, I am wondering how the row will wind up in the end.
Now, I've got to go make sure I still have all the bogons I left in my Schrodinger's box.
You did not state that the rod itself was indestructable, so with all that energy present when it fits into the garage, and the sudden change in speed, I am wondering how the row will wind up in the end.
Now, I've got to go make sure I still have all the bogons I left in my Schrodinger's box.
I'm still having a hard time comprehending the part where the rod can enter the garage even though from the point of view of the rod, the garage contracts. Possible reason may be that relativity was never covered back then in school, and I'm not in university yet.
Yeah that's a bit which had me confused for a long time, and indeed still does :P
Basically, it seemed from what it said on Wikipedia, that in the frame of the garage, every part of the pole decelerates at the same time.
But, simultaneous events in one frame need not be simultaneous in another. It seems that in the frame of the pole, the front decelerates before the back which somehow allows it to contract bit by bit into the garage.
I haven't explained it well because I don't understand it very well. Perhaps you can take more from the Wikipedia page than me :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_paradox
When you're done you can read the twin paradox and relativity of simultaneity. Then you can appreciate this brilliant xkcd comic XD
http://xkcd.com/514/
(Warning: contains sex references :P)
Basically, it seemed from what it said on Wikipedia, that in the frame of the garage, every part of the pole decelerates at the same time.
But, simultaneous events in one frame need not be simultaneous in another. It seems that in the frame of the pole, the front decelerates before the back which somehow allows it to contract bit by bit into the garage.
I haven't explained it well because I don't understand it very well. Perhaps you can take more from the Wikipedia page than me :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_paradox
When you're done you can read the twin paradox and relativity of simultaneity. Then you can appreciate this brilliant xkcd comic XD
http://xkcd.com/514/
(Warning: contains sex references :P)
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Yeah, already read that. Could as well been in chinese, it's not very easy to comprehend when all your knowledge about relativity comes from what you picked up in a few online articles that all assume you already know what they're talking about.
No, observing them gave them a state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat
Notice that the cat is both (or neither) alive and dead while the box remains sealed. It is only when the box is opened (and the contents observed) that the state of the universe is set (either by terminating alternate possibilities or by realizing them). Of course, it is also possible that observing the cat didn't actually affect anything, etc.
:-]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat
Notice that the cat is both (or neither) alive and dead while the box remains sealed. It is only when the box is opened (and the contents observed) that the state of the universe is set (either by terminating alternate possibilities or by realizing them). Of course, it is also possible that observing the cat didn't actually affect anything, etc.
:-]
@hanst Yeah same for me. I understand the words, but the meaning is nonetheless lost on me.
Does anyone else here understand it from the ladder's frame, i.e. when the garage contracts to 10ft and the pole is 40ft. I understand that it's something to do with the rod accelerating to a stop sequentially from front to back, but that is all...
Does anyone else here understand it from the ladder's frame, i.e. when the garage contracts to 10ft and the pole is 40ft. I understand that it's something to do with the rod accelerating to a stop sequentially from front to back, but that is all...
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