I’m asking this because there is a scifi book I’m reading, and in the book there’s a scene where someone is communicating with a person in a spacecraft moving at lightspeed. I know their ability to communicate would probably not be possible, but let’s just put that aside for a second. Hypothetically, if you could communicate with someone moving lightspeed, would the time dilation make it so that they would appear to be moving and speaking very slowly relative to you?

  • a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.caOPEnglish
    5·
    1 month ago

    Bad news: If a person was moving at the actual speed of light, from their own perspective they would arrive at their destination instantly.

    Another commenter here asked about an interesting set-up where the person moving lightspeed is circling around the stationary person. This is of course super impractical but it might allow them to communicate without catching up to one another instantly

    Assuming a velocity close but not quite as fast as C, yes, you would see severe differences in the speed of the communication. One party would be super slowed down and the other would be super sped up.

    Okay I guess that answers my question then