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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 07/13/2010 : 17:57:51
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This has been bothering me for awhile. I thought of creating all sorts of hypothetical situations to ask this question, but I get bogged down in details. So I'll ask first:
Does gravity travel faster than light?
If the sun disappeared (how?) right now, would it take 8 minutes for the earth to change its orbit, or would the orbit change immediately?
On a related note (I think), it bugs me-- a lot-- that when I look at something moving, I know that that object isn't located exactly where I see it, but rather it is positioned a tiny tiny fraction of an inch ahead of it. When the lightwaves from a baseball flying through it air at 90 mph reach my eyes, said ball will have moved ever so much forward so that what I'm seeing isn't a reflection of reality, but rather a reflection of reality from, like 0.000000....1 seconds ago.
I don't know why that bugs me, but it does.
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2010 : 18:36:32 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
,,,,,,,On a related note (I think), it bugs me-- a lot-- that when I look at something moving, I know that that object isn't located exactly where I see it, but rather it is positioned a tiny tiny fraction of an inch ahead of it. When the lightwaves from a baseball flying through it air at 90 mph reach my eyes, said ball will have moved ever so much forward so that what I'm seeing isn't a reflection of reality, but rather a reflection of reality from, like 0.000000....1 seconds ago.
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The delay is bigger than you think. The time it takes for photons to reach your is is nothing. Photons striking the retina start the timer and it takes time for the signal to travel to the vision center in your brain and be processed. It's a good amount of time before your visually aware of it. When it comes down to it we're 100 or 200 msec. behind if I remember correctly. It's not noticeable or your not aware of it because you brain projects ahead. It sounds weird but I'm pretty sure you'd be really shocked if I had the actual delay time from real world events and our awareness of it. SS
Edit,I found this from a link.
Although average ERP responses reflect the visual category of the stimulus shortly after visual processing has begun (e.g. 75-80 msec), this difference is not correlated with the subject's behavior until 150 msec poststimulus. |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2010 : 18:54:45 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Does gravity travel faster than light? |
No.| If the sun disappeared (how?) right now, would it take 8 minutes for the earth to change its orbit, or would the orbit change immediately? |
Eight minutes.| On a related note (I think), it bugs me-- a lot-- that when I look at something moving, I know that that object isn't located exactly where I see it, but rather it is positioned a tiny tiny fraction of an inch ahead of it. When the lightwaves from a baseball flying through it air at 90 mph reach my eyes, said ball will have moved ever so much forward so that what I'm seeing isn't a reflection of reality, but rather a reflection of reality from, like 0.000000....1 seconds ago. |
And Polaris looks to us how it looked 430 years ago. And the Sun looks to us like it did eight minutes ago. Etc., etc.
Unfortunately, I'd like to get my body looking like it did 20 years ago, but I'm not sure that'll ever happen. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2010 : 19:39:56 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Unfortunately, I'd like to get my body looking like it did 20 years ago, but I'm not sure that'll ever happen.
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If it's any consolation, you still are in shape, at least for those that might be viewing in some twenty lights years on out there.
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 07/13/2010 : 20:35:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Randy
If it's any consolation, you still are in shape, at least for those that might be viewing in some twenty lights years on out there. |
And for those viewing here, "round" is a shape, too. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2010 : 00:49:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
I don't know why that bugs me, but it does.
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I think of light in the same way as sound in this respect:
When I see the lightning, know it takes the sound a couple of seconds before arriving at my position. The light does the same, only faster. In the case of lightning, it's hard to judge distance, but I once saw a man some 100m meters away pounding at something with a big sledgehammer. That was a tangible distance, but there was still a noticable delay in the sound which really struck home (pun intended). This created the perfect analogy for the delay in light travelling from an event throught time and space before it reached me.
I was only 10years old at the time, but the image made a huge impression and stuck with me.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 07/14/2010 : 04:59:44 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Unfortunately, I'd like to get my body looking like it did 20 years ago, but I'm not sure that'll ever happen.
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Edit: Well you look great from Delta Pavonis Dave! |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
| Edited by - BigPapaSmurf on 07/14/2010 05:56:09 |
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On Light
