Galactic Sapper wrote:Daryl wrote:Relativity can give you a headache. I suspect that is why the Honorverse physics seem to have a simplified version. Remarkable how it has endured the last 20 years so well.
A minor bone to chew on. Take a hollow core SD(P), travelling at 0.6 C. One crew member at the tail shines a laser torch up the core from tail to front. What speed is the light traveling at?
I believe that I know the answer, but would appreciate responses.
Speed of light wouldn't change but the light would be noticeably redshifted.
That would have to take some getting used to. On a ship under way the color of the bulkheads would change depending on which direction you were facing!
Guess that would help teach the recruits how to tell port and starboard apart pretty quickly.
Disagree--there's no redshift observed in this situation. That gives you an absolute frame of reference that's easy to measure--Mr. One Mug isn't going to allow that!
Now, if you want to see a really wacked-out world, try <i>Redshift Rendezvous</i> by John L. Stith. Much of the story takes place on a starship where the speed of light is 10 m/s and he stays as close to faithful to special relativity as he can. (The people are protected by handwave suits and frame dragging/event horizon effects are ignored--in operation parts of the ship have a local gravity well above 1g, but this causes no harm. Going much below the photon sphere is possible not recommended due to the great difficulty in climbing back up.)