How can you divide a constant such as light speed, or any rate, for instance in two along a linear l

How can you divide a constant such as light speed, or any rate, for instance in two along a linear line? You can divide I know any rate into cross sections, but to divide a rate linear is like dividing zero. There is a jerk over on another message board site who has represented such a concept using a chart he has drawn inverted as he is expressing variables of speeds in relation to light speed. He is in fact trying to dissect its value, but can't seem to understand he has represented this wrongly on a graph he drew and posted. He drew a graph charting velocities using light speed as the relative mark illuminating simply rates above an below its velocity. He drew the graph showing "speed" on the right vertically and "time" on the bottom to represent light speed a certain rate as you would on a basic mph chart of distance and time. He can't see his mistake.... I can't seem to get through to him that the rate line has to be flipped from a 45 degree angle first in order to dissect it, or draw a different type of graph representing light speed as a single point to mark it within a curve of ratios. Otherwise of course it's like the exercise of dividing zero. That's what dividing light speed linearly is the same as. The thread btw, if the people on it realize it or not, is really about tying to gasp the speed of time.

LOL!

Any suggestion on how to explain how charts and graphs work to know it all-s?

the only thing i know about going light speed is that the rules of our "Space/time" laws have to adjust constantly to keep things even. for example.. (i saw this on some discovery channel thing) If you are on a train that travels light speed... time would literally slow down on this train... yes u probably wouldnt even notice. but if you were some how outside the train looking in without going lightspeed.. everything inside the train would be slowed down. same with the space station... this thing can travel around the Earth and they have noticed that i think every year or something like that... the time up there is off by fractions of a second.. if you traveled around a black hole right outside its point of sucking you in.. and came back and say you did this in 3 days.. you would come back to earth and years would have passed....

Not sure if this has ANY THING to do with the OP but still cool i think

Originally posted by machines4200
.. if you traveled around a black hole right outside its point of sucking you in.. and came back and say you did this in 3 days.. you would come back to earth and years would have passed....

Naaa, you'd just go "splop"! and dissappear into obscurity.

How can the effects of the speed of light or anywhere near it be experienced measured or observed. Theory is the nearest we could get. Surely it's impossible to go that fast, decelerate to a stop and reverse the whole action and expect to exist as anything but incoherant "stuff"?

reply to post by LilDudeissocool


Correction, I guess the guy wrote "space" not "speed." It's still all messed up regardless.

Im not sure if this helps your arguement chap but there are a couple of facts that are now accepted by mainstream science that might help with this discussion one way or another.

It used to be belived that light was a constant force and speed, we now know this is not true as when light particles (photons) travel they can be slowed by dense mass, therefor ajusting its speed. I cant remember for the life of me which scify tv series it was but one of them suggested the posibility of "Slow Glass". Ironically they hit the nail on the head with this one because its now possible to develop such a material. Slow glass works on the basis that you have a material thats so dense that when light hits it, it takes longer to pass through it then normal material. Uses of which include light source thats almost limitless. Anyway the point i was trying to make was that light has veriable speed, and what with our limited knowledge of the universe, its impossible to say where and how light is effected, we just know its possible.

The other fact i was gonna put forward was space/time variables. The vast majority of people belive that going at the speed of light or faster can alter the time field, allowing you to move forward. Einstien's mistake was beliveing that time was a 1 dimensional variable, this we now know is not true. Time flows in 3 dimentions.

An example of this are astronauts. When an asteronauts resturns home from an extended journey into space biologists have found that thier bodies age less then that of people on earth. This is due to thier reduced movement speed. Depending on where you are on the earths surface the rotational spin speed varies, its highest point is at the equator moving at 1038 miles an hour. So if you stood on the equator, you would still be moving at over a thousand miles an hour through space (Its a wierd concept to handle i know). But astronauts do no travel at this speed hundreds of miles above the earth, because they are no longer spinning at that speed they body clocks slow down. The move slower erog they move through time slower.

Another example of this is are clocks on high rise buildings, some of the tallest buildings in the world constantly have to keep resetting thier clocks on the upper floors (were talking 1000's of feet above the ground). Because they are further out then then ones on the ground, they move faster speeding time up.

So there you have two proven facts that time can speed up and slow down depending on you motion speed though space. This also proves that you dont have to travel at light speed to move though time, your moving though time now as you read this, sure you can speed it up by moving faster, or slow it down by getting off the planet. But with light now being called an ajustable variable, its boggles the mind as how you can combine the two findings to asjust space/time with modern science.

Like i said i dont know if it helps your argument eithger way but its food for thought