Friday, September 28, 2007

Constant speed is probably not constant!

Newton had said:- “An object will continue to move with a constant speed or will lay at rest unless some external force is applied to it.”

I do agree with this law but it’s not complete: I would write it this way.
“An object will continue to move with a constant speed or will lay at rest unless some external force is applied to it, as visualized under specified measurable timeline”

Let us understand this with an example:-

There is a long pipe of Length L with see through holes lying at equal distances of x.






Let a Ball is thrown with a velocity v inside the tube from point A. The moment of the ball can be seen through the equi-distant holes placed at pt. A1, A2, A3 etc. After the ball is thrown after time t1,the observer notices the that the ball passes from point A1 at a speed of v (initial speed) .After time 2t1 he notices that the ball passes through point A2 with a speed of v(initial speed).Similar way he notices that the speed is unchanged at each of the see through holes and at last the ball leaves the pipe with a speed of v(initial speed).So, the observes declares that the ball has moved with a constant speed v inside the pipe. This is one frame of reference. Do you too agree that the speed remained constant?
Most of you will answer in positive YES. But I can prove that it can be a NO also! How?
Let the ball is moving with a speed of 10m/sec and x be 10 m.
So, distance=velocity*time

10=10*t1.
So, t1=1 sec.
We can write the equation as:-
10=10*(1)
Lets assume that for the first 5 meters it travels with a speed of 20m/sec.
So,
5=20*t1(first)
t1(first)=.25 sec.
so,required speed in t2(second)=.75 seconds.

5=v*.75
v=5/.75
=6.66 m/sec.
So, if the ball travels the first half the distance with a speed of 20m/sec and it covers second half with a speed of 6.66m/sec the overall the ball moves with a distance of 10 meters with a speed of 10 m/sec.
Similar way there can be thousands of combinations of the speed. So, observer can’t say with 100% truth that the ball was moving with a constant speed. Yes, constant speed is just one of the thousands possibilities. So, what the observer said was a prediction or an assumption!

We know that we see the things in frames like a movie. Probably we see a frame in 1/50th of a sec. If in this each of the 1/50 sec time intervals we observe a thing moving with a constant velocity then it may not be true! Compare these time intervals with above equally placed see through holes. You never know that what had happened in the 1/70th sec of a second. Velocity can be different in that frame.
Distance =Velocity * Time

So,to keep the distance and time constant velocity and time can reframe themselves in different combinations.

D=V*T
=(v1*t1)+(v2*t2)+(v3*t3)+……(vn*tn)

so, D is constant and T =t1+t2+t3+…+tn is also constant.

The theory attack most is on the speed of light. Just using the formulae noting speed and time for a minimum measurable timeline does not mean that it would be the same speed in non measurable timeline. It is not same,means that speed can be more or less than perceived in our measurable time line. So, it can never be denied that speed of light can’t be more than 3*10 m/sec(c). And if speed of light is more than c than things can also move with a speed more than c at least momentarily.
Constancy of Energy can also be defined in a similar fashion.

I feel this concept has the potential to change the way we visualize the things!First victim is Newton’s’ law.

...........Ankur

1 comment:

Ananda said...

Netaji.. :) nice posts sir ji.. will read all the past posts and try to put comments also.