From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!lime!burdvax!psuvax!sysred Newsgroups: net.misc Title: A Relavtistically Simple Question Article-I.D.: psuvax.1153 Posted: Tue Jan 18 12:51:08 1983 Received: Thu Jan 20 06:52:25 1983 I submitted this to net.physics with no response. Is the answer too obvious to bother answering, has net.physics disappeared or is everyone afraid to flame about a question that can be investigated experimentally (thanks to D. Wall for the last observation!)? Come on, gang, turn up those burners to full broil and tell me the answer!! ==================================================================== Here's the scenario: I have a digital clock in my office. I neglected to reset it for Eastern Standard Time last fall, so it's still an hour ahead. Someone walks into my office and gives me a hard time about the fact that my clock's an hour off (actually, I'm just a few months ahead of fixing it next spring...). So, we start making funny conjectures about how to set the right time. With a subconscious memory of previous net.physics discussions running around inside my ahead, I propose to speed up the clock (a LOT!!) until it relativistically slows down and loses the hour. How to do this, you ask? Well, suppose the line cord is REAL strong, and I swing it around my head REAL fast to make the clock lose the hour. It's a digital clock and counts line frequency signals to keep time. Where do the extra pulses on the line go? X pulses go in, and X come out, but the clock sees X-(however many it needs to lose an hour). Right? - Ralph Droms Computer Science Dept. Penn State (what does physics have to do with football, anyway?)