Fun with Relativity

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#1

So I’m writing this short story and I’m thinking about having one of my characters make there way to Earth from Lalande 21185 which is about 8.3 lightyears away from us. Ignoring arguments that light speed travel is impossible, it would take him 8.3 years to get there at light speed, right? What I want to know is how would the time dilation work for that? How many years would have passed on Earth for someone who hasn’t been traveling at the speed of light?

This is a stab in the dark I know, but if anyone understands how to calculate this or can find a formula and throw it at me I’d appreciate it.

And aside from me writing a short story, it’s actually kind of fascinating, no?

#2

Hopefully someone smarter than me will chime in, but I’m pretty sure that the observer’s time is distance x 2 divided by light speed. That’s about all I remember, so actually putting that formula to use is kinda hard for me.

Edit: Duh, there’s a Wiki article for it. My dad always told me “look it up”. It seems I haven’t totally learned that lesson yet;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation

#3

I’m dumb. I should have been searching on “time dilation” and not “light speed.” It is kind of odd that I never came across this information while searching for information on “light speed.” Thanks a lot.

#4

this may be useful:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/tdil.html#c2

basically put in your v … 0.9 for example would yield a co-efficient of approximately 2.3.

So if you can get your ship up to 9/10 the speed of light the math would yield a dilation of approx. 2.3 times the 8.3 years for approx 20 years.

Of course if you put in 1.0 for v … you will get infinity (and beyond).

Enjoy.

P.S. make sure one of your crew characters speaks with a welsh accents and has gravity defying boobs :slight_smile: