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Old September 12th, 2005, 09:04 PM
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Default Re: Semi-OT: A question on Power Ratios in Sci-fi

Slick writes: "At 1g, you could accelerate for 353.8 days and still not reach the speed of light (barely)."

In a Newtonian universe, yes. In our relativistic universe, however, the ship's speed can asymptotically approach c, the speed of light, but never reach it. Meanwhile the ship's mass increases, its length decreases, and time slows down for the ship and its crew. For an entertaining look at relativistic space travel I recommend Poul Anderson's 1970 novel "Tau Zero".
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