Tagged Questions

1
vote
2answers
66 views

Can acceleration feel like constant gravity for indefinitely long?

So here's the setup: I'm in a spaceship, without windows as always, and the ship is accelerating upwards at a constant rate of $1\,\text{g}$. So inside the spaceship it feels like I'm being pulled ...
2
votes
1answer
67 views

Difference between proper and comoving frames

I'm reading this book "Introduction to Quantum Fields in Classical Backgrounds" by Mukhanov & Winitzki, and there in the chapter 8 "The Unruh Effect" they introduce 3 reference frames. Laboratory ...
2
votes
1answer
65 views

Understanding bending light beam perpendicular to motion

I'm just reading a book about gravity. An example it gives is a spaceship accelerating. A beam of light travelling at right angles to the direction of movement of the spaceship enters it via a small ...
2
votes
3answers
154 views

Why geometrically four acceleration is a curvature vector of a world line? And what is proper acceleration?

Why geometrically four acceleration is a curvature vector of a world line? Geometrically, four-acceleration is a curvature vector of a world line. Therefore, the magnitude of the ...
1
vote
1answer
105 views

Accelerating expansion of universe - entire universe a non-inertial frame of reference?

If the expansion of the universe is accelerating, doesn't that mean that the entire universe is a non-inertial frame of reference? And if so, what implications does this have (if any)?
0
votes
2answers
116 views

Acceleration and relativity

Usually in physics books this equation used $a=\frac {dv}{dt}$ to calculate the relativistic acceleration. It is true that speed $v=\beta c$ don't have relativistic (Lorentz) factor, But time have a ...
1
vote
2answers
274 views

Special Relativity: What differential equation describes an accelerated object from a non-inertial reference frame?

I am looking for a set of differential equations (to be solved numerically for an educational program) that would describe the position and apparent time of an accelerated clock relative to a ...
5
votes
2answers
284 views

relativistic acceleration equation

A Starship is going to accelerate from 0 to some final four-velocity, but it cannot accelerate faster than $g_M$, otherwise it will crush the astronauts. what is the appropiate equation to constraint ...
1
vote
0answers
88 views

maximum distance between accelerating objects started at different times [closed]

Let there be two objects that have zero relative velocity with respect to each other in an inertial frame. If they both undergo identical accelerations, but one starts the acceleration at t = T1 and ...
11
votes
4answers
376 views

Is there an easy way to show that $x^2-t^2=1/g^2$ for a (relativistic) body undergoing acceleration g?

A professor asked me about the (c=1) equation: $$x^2 - t^2 = 1/g^2$$ which I used in a paper. Or with $c$: $$x^2 - (ct)^2 = c^4/g^2.$$ I told him that it was the exact equation of motion for a ...
4
votes
3answers
759 views

Is acceleration relative?

A while back in my Dynamics & Relativity lectures my lecturer mentioned that an object need not be accelerating relative to anything - he said it makes sense for an object to just be accelerating. ...
8
votes
3answers
364 views

Whether $m$ in $E=mc^{2}$ and $F=ma$ are both relativistic mass?

I know that $m$ in $E=mc^{2}$ is the relativistic mass, but can $m$ in $F=ma$ can also be relativistic? If the answer is yes, then can you tell me whether this equation is valid $E=\frac{F}{a}c^{2}$? ...
2
votes
1answer
211 views

Thought experiment about acceleration

Case 1: two people wake up in spaceships accelerating at 1g. They can measure or observe anything inside the room but not outside. They couldn't determine if they were on a spaceship or on earth. ...
7
votes
2answers
804 views

Relativistic centripetal force

The thought randomly occurred to me that a circular particle accelerator would have to exert a lot of force in order to maintain the curvature of the trajectory. Many accelerators move particles at ...
3
votes
3answers
3k views

Ion Drive Propulsion Top Speed

I would like to know if there is some formula / graph which would provide / show the efficiency of a certain type of propeller in space. Specifically, I'm interested in the acceleration attainable at ...
7
votes
4answers
2k views

Acceleration in special relativity

I am currently studying the motion of relativistic charged particles in electromagnetic fields. More exactly, we first derived the equation of motion in the 4-vector formalism. I was a bit confused ...