Sending Video at Relativistic Speeds?
March 1st, 2010 | by admin |I don’t have much experience with special relativity, and I came up with a scenario that I can’t figure out. In this scenario, we have a ship with a video camera attached to it, moving in a circle around a fixed point, near the speed of light. At that fixed point, we have a station, to which the ship is transmitting the video information on laser pulses. Lets assume there are incremental markers along the circular path and the circle’s radius is not too significant a distance. If the station starts playing the video feed as soon as they receive it, what would the video look like to the people on the station?
My initial thoughts would be that the video would appear like it’s in slow motion. But, where would the "extra information" making up the longer frames come from? Or, if there’s no extra information, how would it appear slower?If it would not appear slower, then what?
The video signal would be severely red shifted as it traveled from the ship. On the receiving end, it would take an extremely long time to receive the entire video footage; it would not be viewable in real-time.
The best one could do would be to watch the video frame-by-frame as the data was received. Once the entire video had been received, the red shift could be corrected for and it would be able to be played and would not appear in slow motion.
2 Responses to “Sending Video at Relativistic Speeds?”
By Bradley on Mar 2, 2010 | Reply
The video signal would be severely red shifted as it traveled from the ship. On the receiving end, it would take an extremely long time to receive the entire video footage; it would not be viewable in real-time.
The best one could do would be to watch the video frame-by-frame as the data was received. Once the entire video had been received, the red shift could be corrected for and it would be able to be played and would not appear in slow motion.
References :
By starryskyn on Mar 2, 2010 | Reply
There would be no red shift, as the transmitting and the receiving points are at a constant distance.
The frame rate would be extended, and each pulse of the transmitter would be longer, with greater time between pulses. While some might equate a longer wavelength with the Doppler red shift, this is not the case. It is a Lorentz time dilation effect.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation