Relativity is Relatively Misunderstood

[SuburbanFarmer]

If a spaceship was traveling away from Earth at lightspeed, and it was 4 light years away, could it watch an Earthling tv show that started 4 years ago?

If the spaceship was passing Alpha Centuri, 4 light years away, could it watch an Alpha Centurian tv show that started 4 years ago?

No. It would be stuck on a single frame of the 4-year-old tv show until it slowed below lightspeed.

[TheReal_ND]

Hes right. Hopefully it's a frame of Ricky slapping Lucy like a drunken Irish sailor wailing on his clumsy wife.

[Speaker to Animals]

If a spaceship was traveling away from Earth at lightspeed, and it was 4 light years away, could it watch an Earthling tv show that started 4 years ago?

If the spaceship was passing Alpha Centuri, 4 light years away, could it watch an Alpha Centurian tv show that started 4 years ago?

Time dilation would make it impossible to watch a broadcast in real time.

But assuming you could make a ship travel at lightspeed itself, and not some high percentage of it, then the time perceived by the occupants for travel would be zero. That is, they could cross the galaxy instantly from their point of view.

And because they travel at the same speed as the radio transmission from Earth, they'd be watching a single frame of that show.

[Martin Hash]

If a spaceship was traveling away from Earth at lightspeed, and it was 4 light years away, could it watch an Earthling tv show that started 4 years ago?

If the spaceship was passing Alpha Centuri, 4 light years away, could it watch an Alpha Centurian tv show that started 4 years ago?

No. It would be stuck on a single frame of the 4-year-old tv show until it slowed below lightspeed.

Agree. What about the show from Alpha Centuri?

[Fife]

This thread is making me awful hungry. Anybody want to order some Papa Johns?

[Speaker to Animals]

Papa John's is the official pizza of the Alt-Right. I thought libertarians are for Dominoes.

[Fife]

You're asking me? :goteam: :drunk:

I think your monitor is stuck on a single frame or something, Elroy. Slow your roll a little, let the universe catch up with you.

[Martin Hash]

What about the show from Alpha Centuri?

[Speaker to Animals]

Oh, I forgot you need to unlock the "roads" tech before you can get the higher levels of the tech tree that lead to rocketry. My bad. I will speak in your barbarian fashion so as to better communicate.

You Hagar of the the Lulz People. Me Speaker to Animals. You no like more sophisticated pizza. You like primitive pizza instead

[Speaker to Animals]

What about the show from Alpha Centuri?

If you travel the speed of light, time collapses to a single moment. You will not be watching anything.

Another way of looking at it: the universe appears to shrink down to a point.