this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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ShowerThoughts
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Sometimes we have those little epiphanies in the shower.. sometimes they come from other places. This is a home for those epiphanies.
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This is actually correct, but not for the reason you might think. It has nothing to do with time zones.
In physics, time is quite literally defined as "what a clock would read". As you approach the speed of light, time dilation approaches infinity and therefore your rate of proper time approaches zero.
If you reach the speed of light, your rate of proper time exactly equals zero and thus the clock is correct 100% of the time.
There is one caveat: in order to reach the speed of light, your mass must equal exactly zero. In which case you can only travel at the speed of light since deceleration is not possible.
Bearing that in mind, it would be correct from a physics standpoint to claim that a broken clock accurately measures the proper time of a photon (or other massless particle).
Even more apt: a zero mass clock would be broken a priori
At C, wouldn't time be pretty much irrelevant though?
Sounds to me that even though your massless clock would be always right, time doesn’t really mean anything in that situation. It’s like having a ruler for measuring how purple yesterday is.