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If you were stationary, and talking to someone moving at lightspeed, would they appear to be speaking in slow motion due to time dilation? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/askscience@lemmy.world
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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?

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[–] 1 point 4 months ago (5 children)

Oh boy, I went down a rabbit hole. This has been bothering me to the point where I called in some favors and found some public info for what the current hypothesis on "near" light speed communications is. Because light speed is impossible...for now haha. But let's use some assumptions.

First, light speed travel is possible. Second, that we have superior tracking technology. To the point where we can find the exact location of a traveling at light speed object in space.

The best option we have now is using photonics for communications. This bypasses using radio waves by using an array of lasers that are pointed toward a receiver, which is in turn pointed to the transmitter. We can see why space and light speed travel makes this difficult. It's hard to track objects in space at very high speeds with the precision needed for this level of communication.

The reason photonics is the best option is, it opens up significantly more frequencies to work with. And some frequencies travel farther and faster than others. If we ever master light speed and light speed communications, I would bet money now it's photonics. Because what's faster than light?

Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Please do not ask about FTL, crazy things start happening then. <- in jest, if you wanna ask you can. Engineers I know argue about it to the point of almost fighting. But that's engineers for you.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Oh boy, I went down a rabbit hole. This has been bothering me to the point where I called in some favors and found some public info

    I appreciate the dedication!

    The lasers idea is interesting.

    And some frequencies travel farther and faster than others.

    Don't all frequencies of light travel at the same speed?

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (3 children)

    You are correct, my sincerest apologies. Light at different frequencies can carry more/less data. I will leave my mistake, as failures are the price of progress. I will not make that mistake again and be more careful. Thank you for your kindness.

    Edit: Clarification; different frequencies affect data transfer rate

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    different frequencies affect data transfer rate

    Ah that makes sense

    You are correct, my sincerest apologies.

    No problem mate. Thanks for all your info and the detailed responses

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    The last thing I'll say is, you still need to over come the Doppler effect. But if you can send large enough packets quick enough, you can mitigate some of the issues. The biggest thing is sending something across long distances quickly. That's the biggest issue. For that, unfortunately, you need faster than light. I hope the information provides a more exciting journey through your story.

    In my opinion, the only way to have faster than light communications is a massive breakthrough on the quantum scale. Entanglement is so new and unknown, that I have no idea if that'll be the answer. It doesn't seem so to me, though. But quantum mechanics breaks so many laws of classical mechanics, it's crazy. You'd almost need some wormhole to communicate using classical techniques. I.e radio, photonics, etc. Which I think is where I rest. Photonics for high data transfer pointed at a wormhole. Then someone receives it in the other side. You still have Doppler effect, but much more mitigated. Hope you enjoyed my diatribe. Much love and peace to you, friend.

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