Physics in Superman Returns

[CaptainSarcasm]

today in my physics lecture we started to cover the special theory of relativity, more specifically that time moves at a different rate depending on the value of gamma. what role if any do you think this will play in the movie?

what i mean is, does superman travel to krypton at near the speed of light, making the trip in only a half hour for him and six years for us? do you think they'll neglect that and have the trip have actually taken 6 years? if he traveled that slow wtf was krypton doing in our solar system?

[KalMart]

It's possible that thats the case, in that his trip, to him, was for a few days, whereas Earth experienced six years. Rememeber that in SM:TM, when Jor-El said, "By that reasoning, I will have been dead for many thousands of years...", he was probably referring to the speed of the ship to arrive at Earth in only a year or so, versus the time dilation experienced on Krypton.

This is one of the great cunundrums of traveling near the speed of light. Using conventional physics and Einsteins theory of relativity. If we could build a space vessel to travel close to the speed of light, and visit a star eight light years away in, say, ten years....the people left behind on Earth would experience nearly 30,000 years by the time the passengers finished the perceived ten-year trip.

[Hyperion]

Originally Posted by KalMart

It's possible that thats the case, in that his trip, to him, was for a few days, whereas Earth experienced six years. Rememeber that in SM:TM, when Jor-El said, "By that reasoning, I will have been dead for many thousands of years...", he was probably referring to the speed of the ship to arrive at Earth in only a year or so, versus the time dilation experienced on Krypton.

This is one of the great cunundrums of traveling near the speed of light. Using conventional physics and Einsteins theory of relativity. If we could build a space vessel to travel close to the speed of light, and visit a star eight light years away in, say, ten years....the people left behind on Earth would experience nearly 30,000 years by the time the passengers finished the perceived ten-year trip.

Hm... Doesn't that theory state that the closer you move towards the speed of light the slower time goes..? So... if you were to, theoretically, move at 99,9% of the speed of light... should time stand just about still inside the wessel? What I'm saying is, are you sure, when moving at the 99,9% of the speed of light and traveling for 10 years.. that time inside the ship has experienced 10 years?

[Trapdinsteel]

Space travel....... its a mother fu$%er.

[KalMart]

Originally Posted by Hyperion

Hm... Doesn't that theory state that the closer you move towards the speed of light the slower time goes..? So... if you were to, theoretically, move at 99,9% of the speed of light... should time stand just about still inside the wessel? What I'm saying is, are you sure, when moving at the 99,9% of the speed of light and traveling for 10 years.. that time inside the ship has experienced 10 years?

Right...the traveler experiences time slower, but isn't necessartily aware of things going slower. It's all real-time to the traveler, but the rest of the stationary universe is experiencing a much longer real-time duration. Sucks, huh?

[Hyperion]

Originally Posted by KalMart

Right...the traveler experiences time slower, but isn't necessartily aware of things going slower. It's all real-time to the traveler, but the rest of the stationary universe is experiencing a much longer real-time duration. Sucks, huh?

Hehe, well, when you think about it it's the only way to travel.
Get the whole mankind into one spaceship and travel the Universe at 99,9% of lightspeed.
That way you could travel thousands of thousands of lightyears and it would still only take, theoretically... seconds.
THe fact that the Universe probably could have ended before the trip is over is a whole other fact you need to think about

[KalMart]

Originally Posted by Hyperion

Hehe, well, when you think about it it's the only way to travel.
Get the whole mankind into one spaceship and travel the Universe at 99,9% of lightspeed.
That way you could travel thousands of thousands of lightyears and it would still only take, theoretically... seconds.
THe fact that the Universe probably could have ended before the trip is over is a whole other fact you need to think about

The universe will never end.

The question is...when the Earth is coming to an end, and we embark on our grand colonization of another world...will we bring our movies with us?

[Mercy]

Didn't you know that all Kryptonian spaceships get equipped with Black-hole-o-matics and Negative energy drives to keep them open? Pshaw.

Seriously though, when it comes to SF, I pretty much ignore the abhorent treatment of the ultimate speed limit--c. And that's tough--I'm a physics major!

[johnsonuk]

isn't there a headline in one of the clips from a daily planet paper about a new planet found?if they can see it maybe it is normal time for kal-el to get there so indeed his time away is 5/6 years.

[KalMart]

Originally Posted by Mercy

Didn't you know that all Kryptonian spaceships get equipped with Black-hole-o-matics and Negative energy drives to keep them open? Pshaw.

Seriously though, when it comes to SF, I pretty much ignore the abhorent treatment of the ultimate speed limit--c. And that's tough--I'm a physics major!

Right. It's only a movie.

[KalMart]

Originally Posted by johnsonuk

isn't there a headline in one of the clips from a daily planet paper about a new planet found?if they can see it maybe it is normal time for kal-el to get there so indeed his time away is 5/6 years.

They'd have to have found a new solar system, meaning a star. The closest star in real life is, what, 4.5 light years away? If a star was close enough for a ship to get there in normal time 6 yrs traveling, say, 30,000 mph (speed of the Voyager exploration craft, I think), we would have two suns in the sky.

Just for an idea of speeds needed....minimal speed for orbit around the Earth is something like 17,500 mph...meaning that the MIR space station is moving that fast relative to the Earth's surface. That's....pretty darn fast.

[johnsonuk]

Originally Posted by KalMart

They'd have to have found a new solar system, meaning a star. The closest star in real life is, what, 4.5 light years away? If a star was close enough for a ship to get there in normal time 6 yrs traveling, say, 30,000 mph (speed of the Voyager exploration craft, I think), we would have two suns in the sky.

ok this getting to technical it is a film

[Enlightened One]

Originally Posted by Hyperion

Get the whole mankind into one spaceship and travel the Universe at 99,9% of lightspeed.
That way you could travel thousands of thousands of lightyears and it would still only take, theoretically... seconds.

Heh...That's a BIT of an exaggeration. A smidge. Li'l bit. (in other words, a whole hell of a lot)

THe fact that the Universe probably could have ended before the trip is over is a whole other fact you need to think about

No it's not. That's a headache-inducing conversation for another time, though.

[Hyperion]

Originally Posted by Enlightened One

Heh...That's a BIT of an exaggeration. A smidge. Li'l bit. (in other words, a whole hell of a lot)

Ok, since you seem to know the exact figures here.. if I travel at 99,9% of light speed, how would my time run relative to the time outside of the ship?

[kryptoman]

Originally Posted by KalMart

T...meaning that the MIR space station is moving...

WAS moving. Unless you meant ISS.