Fluidity: You have some incorrect ideas about spacetime, which are clearly evident in your first post. As chroot explained, time dilation and length contraction are never effects experienced by an observer in the same reference frame as the object which is affected. These effects are only ever seen by other observers in relative motion. A co-moving observer always perceives time to be running at the normal rate, and lengths to be normal in his own reference frame. Hence: <i>We are in a ship traveling at 85% the speed of light. The ship is undergoing radical changes due to space-time warpage.</i> This is not true. The ship experiences no changes at all in its length or time. Only an observer who is stationary relative to the ship sees it shrink and its clocks run slow. <i>1) Will the warpage of space-time throughout the vessel be uniform?</i> Yes, to an external observer. People inside see nothing. <i>3) If so, will our electronics cease to function properly due to changes deep in the silicon geometry?</i> No. According to somebody on the ship, the electronics are the same as they ever were. <i>4) Will light behave normally, uniformly, throughout the craft?</i> Yes. <i>What I see is a parabolic drift in the density or fabric of space, being less warped near the central axis of the ship in the direction of travel.</i> I don't know what this means.
Re: Yes... I'm probably not contributing anything of worth here but Fluidity, I just want to say that I think I understand the "counter-intuitiveness" that you're going through. I had the same problem when I first tried understanding the "twin paradox" and not unlike you, I thought that the travelling twin underwent actual physical changes that cause him/her to age less. I think RDT2's statement - "...time does not elaspe at the same rate for all observers" is a helpful key-phrase to anyone who wants to generally understand some of the relativistic effects in the "twin paradox", provided one starts to think in relative terms instead of absolute ones. Just my two cents....
Thanks JR I'm studying math right now. Baby steps, but I'm doing it. My learning curve isn't what it was in my 20's. Are the changes that occur during time-dilation in any way permanent? Meaning: It has been said we would age less on inter-stellar flights near c. Is this untrue? When we come back from a long journey near c, have we effectively (sort of) traveled into the future?
Re: Thanks JR No changes occur during time dilation! Yes, 'effectively' you would have 'traveled into the future'. But that's a very un-scientific way to describe it.
Thanks whiteknight. The questions above were planted to make myself look less informed than I really am. I was trying bring the conversation to a focal point, but it broke badly.
