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Flat Earth Theory / Re: You wouldn't know how fast you're going
« on: April 12, 2016, 08:29:04 PM »As far as I'm concerned, this thread concluded with nametaken graciously accepting Rounder's explanation of relative motion in space. But to clear up the argument that cropped up afterwards...In simple terms flat earthers are trying to argue that the Earth is travelling close to the speed of light.
E=Mc2 so the mass of everything on Earth is ridiculously huge.
In even simpler terms flat earthers believe they have more mass in the palm of their hand than there is in a black hole.
If you want to talk about velocity, length contraction, and relativistic mass, you need to establish the frame of reference of the observer.
Let's call the observer Bob. Bob can survive in space. Bob is moving at .99 c relative to earth. Bob is pretty darn bored, because he doesn't get Netflix in space, but I digress...
According to Bob, the earth is indeed experiencing length contraction. The earth also has a ridiculously high relativistic mass.
According to the good citizens of earth, Bob is the one experiencing length contraction. Bob is the one with ridiculously high relativistic mass.
According to the good citizens of earth, the earth is not experiencing length contraction, and its total mass is just its normal everyday rest mass.
In conclusion, no one is implying that anyone is holding a black hole in their hand.
BCGreenwood: I don't mind people being wrong. I myself am wrong all the time. Heck, there is a chance I'm wrong about this. But being smug and insulting is a one-way ticket to no-respect land.
junker: You are generally correct about this topic as far as I can tell. But at least try to explain to the poor guy why he is being wrong, instead of being smug and dismissive about everything he says... its no wonder this thread was going nowhere.
You've missed one important detail about the whole thing though, the twins paradox.
Yes Bob and Earth appear to each other to be moving very fast but only 1 of them is and that's the point I'm making.
Any observer would have to be travelling close to the speed of light for Earth to appear "normal".
Oh and Totesnotreptilian, I noticed you mentioned this on my other post I just couldn't be bothered to reply. You said 3 or 4 times that I didn't mention that it was to an outside observer. To be honest, I thought it was kinda obvious.