[ExI] speed of light at the speed of light

[Gordon]

Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:



On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 11:50 PM, Gordon <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:

Good, thanks. Now what does it mean to say, as I do and you seem to agree, "in the limit as I approach c"? You'll recall that I am accelerating toward c relative to earth such that the difference between my speed and c is halved in each time period. In theory I never reach c, so I needn't worry about the supposed impossibility of a massive object moving at c, but I do become infinitely close to c. This seems fine until one considers that .999... 1.

>That last sentence is unclear.  What do you mean by ".999...1"?  

I think it is a fact of mathematics that .99... carried out to an infinite number of 9s is equal to 1.  No? 

If true then when I say "in the limit when I approach c" it means that in the limit I am travelling at c. Or at least I don't see the difference.

> Also, for any real case, you have finite acceleration over finite time.

I suppose so, but we are talking theory here. I can accelerate for an infinite amount of time such until I reach c in the limit. 

Perhaps calculus does not apply to these questions. I don't know. I think you also mentioned Zeno's paradox, which I agree might apply.

Gordon
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