writer-a replied to your post: YOU GUYS
Wouldn’t he actually be going forward in time?I’ll expand.
As you approach the speed of light, according to Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity, time begins to slow down. This has been proven with experiments.
Tacit to this…
Yes, so technically, as he approached the speed of light, time slowed. Had he not exceeded it, he would have returned to earth in the future. We agree on that. We also agree on no relationship between physical movement and time movement, i.e., going from my place to yours and from yours to mine doesn’t reverse time just because I reversed course, so yeah, the earth spinning backwards thing wouldn’t - ahem - hold water. (You can’t divide matrices, right? ETA - I recently worked on a project where I tried to wrap my head around this, and I really should have paid more attention in maths. I mostly understood I had a headache.) Thing is, we’re not taking acceleration and deceleration into account, and maybe this is where I’m wrong if for no other reason we’re talking about a comic book hero who can do any damn thing he wants, even overcome infinite mass. But, the time to accelerate to the speed of light would advance time so far on earth, then would need to be offset by his time past the speed of light, but then the reverse would happen as he slowed? Zero net gain? Gah.
I believe it all depends on your frame of reference. To an observer on Earth Superman would appear to be shrinking and moving in slow motion until he reach light speed and disappeared. To superman the earth would appear to slow down and eventually reverse as he exceeded the cosmological speed limit.
I’ll admit the effect of acceleration is escaping me right now. So I could be off base. Also I have a feeling that the fact that superman is traveling along a circular path would have an effect.
(via writer-b)
