Re: Lightspeed

George Lavalle wrote:
>
> "Red shift," eh? Sounds like atmospheric perspective. (That's an art term;
> stuff turns paler the farther away it is, and blurs.) If it's science, can't
> tell you worth a kobold's fart nugget.

        Red shift is a doppler effect for light.  Quick science lessen: light
moves in waves, like water.  The length of the wave determines the
type/color of light.  If you are moving closer to a light source at a
fairly significant velocity, the length of the wave seems to shorten,
thus shifting towards the blue.  Moving away, the wavelenghts appear to
lengthen, thus shifting into a red color.

> Uh, by the way; faster than light travel is very bad. The faster you go, the
> slower your time is compared to everybody else. You spend a simple five
> minutes spinning around the edge of the crystal sphere as a test, and a
> hundred years pass for everybody else. (and who wants to miss a century?)
> Another unfortunate occurance, the closer one gets to light speed the less
> visible one is. Yeah, the speed of light is constant. (186000 miles per
> second) But see, to be seen the light has to bounce off one and into the
> eyes of one's observers. Another problem; light from objects to the fore
> reaches you just as you reach them. You can only see them once you've passed
> through them.

        All correct, at least according to my physics teachers (like I believe
them...:)

> And you ever have to peel rubber to stop? The faster you're going, the
> harder stoping is. A sudden stop at light speed would require at least a
> Ship Shaken crit.

        Ummm...more like a bug hitting the windshield of the space shuttle...;P
--
Adam Miller