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Okonomiyaki_lover t1_j6uyjs6 wrote

Reply to comment by nivlark in Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science by AutoModerator

So from ship a's perspective, they are

  1. closer to earth than ship b and

  2. the speed of ship b appears to be faster than ship a?

Ok so at a significant % of c the distance appears shorter... But if you stop does the distance appear to increase as you slow down?

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nivlark t1_j6v0vqr wrote

Ship A thinks they are standing still - again, both the Earth and Ship B are moving towards them.

The difference in distances is not because of the speed of the ship, it's because of the speed of light. Ship A receives light from Ship B that started travelling some time ago, when B was further away. As the two ships approach, the time lag decreases until it vanishes when they meet - which means that from A's perspective, time onboard B is running fast.

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Okonomiyaki_lover t1_j6v76i9 wrote

Ok so it's more about ship b's progress is compressed and then ship a is essentially watching the ffwd version of the information coming to them.

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