Spark image

Relativistic velocity addition 2

Question

From what I believe, it is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. Hypothetically speaking, if you were standing on a travellator going at just below the speed of light and began running, would you then be going faster that the speed of light and if so, what would happen?

Answer:

The relativistic formula for the addition of two velocities v and V is:

Resultant velocity = (v + V)/(1 + [vV]/c2)

Lets imagine that the travellator is moving at 0.9 c and you are moving at 0.1c relative to the travellator.

Your resultant velocity as measured by an external observer would be:

Resultant velocity = (0.1 + 0.99)c/(1 +[0.1x0.99]c2/c2) = 1.09c/(1+ 0.099) = 0.9918c so still below the velocity of light.

 
 
 
© Keith Gibbs 2013