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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a> [<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org">mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Adrian Tymes<br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, August 23, 2013 8:47 AM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] speed of light at the speed of light<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 11:50 PM, Gordon <<a href="mailto:gts_2000@yahoo.com" target="_blank">gts_2000@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>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.<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>That last sentence is unclear. What do you mean by ".999...1"? The straight reading is "from .999 to as close to 1 as makes no difference", except in this case, it matters that there is a difference, however small.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>Also, for any real case, you have finite acceleration over finite time. The universe has not existed for infinite time, and the common theories have it that the universe will not exist for an infinite future time, so you don't have infinite time in which to accelerate. (If you find a way to skip out on the universe's eventual fate, the mechanics of how you do that probably matter.) Therefore you can't get "infinitely close to c".<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ja. With c, everything is different from our nor</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>mal</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> experiences. In our world, 0.99999 etc is infinitely close to 1, and we can treat it as equal to 1. But 0.999999…c is still infinitely far from c.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> From the point of view of c, 0.99999…c is infinitesimally close to zero.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Cool!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>