Last week we worked through the Twin

Paradox.
And if you've been thinking a little bit
about it, you might be asking, can we put
it to some practical use here?
And so Alice has been thinking about
that.
So here is what she would like to do.
She would actually like to take a trip to
the center of the galaxy and back again
so she is going to be in the spaceship,
Bob's going to be here on earth observing
her.
Here's my fanciful drawing of the center
of the galaxy, a lot of gas clouds around
they actually can't see it in, in visible
light we can still using infrared
telescopes in the light and.
A lot of bright, blue, young stars there,
orbiting around actually a, a super
massive black hole with the equivalent
mass of about 2 million solar masses,
even more than 2 million solar masses.
So, very interesting region, if we could
actually get there, and Alice thinks she
can do it.
And so, so let's think about this.
using our analysis of the twin paradox.
We know that, in terms with Bob the
observer, it's a fairly straight forward
analysis of the situation.
Remember Alice, the traveler, is a little
more complicated there because we had,
some relativity of simultaneity, leading
clock flag going on and things like that,
but from Bob's perspective fairly
straight forward.
So let's think about it from his
perspective here.
He knows that it's actually about 30,000
light years to the galaxy.
This is, this is a round figure.
It's, it's not easy to actually figure
out the exact distance.
The best estimates right now are maybe
around 27,000 light years or so, so we'll
just round it up to 30,000 light years
there.
So, we know the distance to the galaxy.
So if you think about it, Bob is going to
see, even if Alice moves pretty close to
the speed of light here if she could move
the speed of light, it would take her
30,000 years to get there.
So maybe we'll just, we'll ignore the
acceleration that's needed for the
moment.
Just assume she's going to constant loss
of motion all the way there.
30,000, it takes 30,000 years, traveling

at the velocity of light from Bob's

perspective.
But remember, if he were to observe her
clock that she's carrying with her, and
that measures her time and her frame of
reference.
The Lorentz factor comes in.
The time dilation factor.
So, we know that the, we'll just do half
the trip.
Because, we know from Bob's perspective
it's symmetrical, so coming back, it's
the same, same thing, so we know from
Bob's perspective that, she travels not
quite the speed of light but very close
to it, it's going to take about 30,000
years on his clocks but we also know that
as he observes.
Her clocks, there's a time dilation
factor.
He observes her clocks ticking more
slowly, and so it's going to be delta T.
This perspective, divided by gamma.
Well.
Let's say that Alice is really in a hurry
here, she wants to get there in two years
and then take two years back again, she
can certainly, you know, there's a
slowing down factor as well, we have to
account for that, but we're just doing a
very rough calculation here, so.
We'll assume that she can slow down
pretty quickly, and then get back up to
speed pretty quickly and come back.
Or even do something like, as she gets
there, perhaps she can take a path
through here, use sort of a slingshot
effect around that black hole in the
center, as long as she doesn't get too
close to it, and shoot her back this way.
So however she does it, in terms of the
details, we'll assume that we can work
something like that, or that she, she
could do it.
So, 30,000 years, she want, for Bob.
She wants to get there in two years.
So, if this is two, we have, okay, Alice,
she's in a hurry.
She wants to get there in two years.
Bob says, you know what, even if you go
at the speed of light it's going to take
you 30,000 years.
But her clock, he's going to observe her
clock running more slowly.
So if her clock is going to run two years
on the trip, from zero all the way to
two, to get there, what does gamma have
to be?
Well, obviously very easily.
30,000.

You know, bring the two over here.

30,000 divided by two.
This implies that gamma equals 15,000.
So, that is the, the Lorentz factor.
That Alice needs to get to the center of
the galaxy in two years.
Assuming constant velocity and motion
there.
Well, what velocity is that?
If you work that out using the Lorentz
factor equation, here's what you're
going to get.
Assuming I got all the digits right here.
It's something.
Equal to this or very close to it, it's
let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 7,
7, 7, 7, 8 or something like that.
In other words, very, very, close to the
speed of light and oh, c here.
We put the c at the end.
so, 0.99999, essentially times, times the
speed of light to get a gamma factor of
15,000.
Which will enable Alice to get there
according to her clock that she's
carrying with her, and what she's aging
according too, she'll get there in two
years, and then maybe slingshot back in
another two years back this way.
So she's back in four years, and she gets
back and, and she's really excited to
tell Bob.
Gosh, that was fantastic!
All the great stuff.
Took some great photographs there.
Comes back and then she asks okay where
is Bob?
Well it's like well Bob who?
When you think about it, you know.
Alice has aged four years total.
People on earth though, time on earth,
30,000 years there, 30,000 years back and
it's 60,000 years later.
On Earth when she gets back and in fact
so you can think of this some what as
time travel into the future would
actually be possible here with the Twin
Paradox analysis or anything similar to
that.
So its not only at that point its Bob Jr.
Bob the third, Bob the fourth, its more
like Bob the six hundredth might still be
around at that point.
So about six hundred generations have
passed.
So, It'd be very interesting for Alice
not only the, to experience the center of
the galaxy, what's going on there, but to
come back and see what Earth is like
60,000 years later, if anyone is even

still around at that point.

another interesting question here is, a
couple of interesting questions.
One is, what would Alice actually see if
she could take this trip?
As she speeds along towards the center of
the galaxy and of course in, in films
like Star Wars and Star Trek you get the
idea of you see the stars sort of flowing
by you, you know streaks of light.
In fact the image we use for this course
if you look on Coursera it has sort of
that effect.
Right?
Sort of the stars streaming by on a blue
background.
An actual fact if you do that analysis,
it wouldn't be quite so dramatic
unfortunately.
It would be more just like a fuzzy glow
that you would see.
In fact, not only that, it would be very
dangerous type of situation for her cause
here's what would happen.
Remember how we talked earlier in the
course about the Doppler effect and train
whistles gotta, train whistle coming
towards us or if we're moving toward.
It, you get the higher pitch and then as
it moves away it's a lower pitch.
In other words, the frequency of the
train whistle, increases as you move
toward it.
Same thing here with light, there's a
Doppler effect.
And even a relativistic Doppler effect,
but as Alice moves at that velocity and
sees stars coming to her the light from
those stars would be shifted toward the
blue end of the spectrum.
And even beyond that into the ultraviolet
region, and beyond that into what's known
as the extreme ultraviolet region and
beyond that to the x-ray region.
In other words, all those stars that
she's approaching, the light, from those
stars coming at her would be x-rays, and
so she'd need some pretty good shielding
on her spaceship to protect her from,
from those x-rays during her, her trip.
Now, of course, we can't see x-rays, so
in other words, that it hears the visible
light from those stars, because of
extreme Doppler shift.
the frequency shift there would turn the
visible light into x-rays, coming at her.
And some of you may know that, throughout
the universe, there's what's called the
cosmic microwave background radiation.
It's its sort of a remnant of the big

bang and it's, as the name implies,

microwave radiation and what would happen
is and that sort of pervades all of the
space.
We see it coming from all different
directions in space.
There's some slight difference in certain
directions but for the most part it's
uniform throughout the universe as best
we can tell.
Well, that's in the microwave region,
what would happen is, that radiation,
which is like magic radiation, be shifted
into the visible region.
And so this fuzzy glow, would be all
around Alice, as she traveled to the
center of the galaxy and back at the very
high velocity.
So she would actually see the cosmic
background radiation, cosmic microwave
background radiation.
as a fuzzy glow all around your
indivisible region of the spectrum.
So that's what she would see, not, not
quite as dramatic as the stars flying by
as she, as she travels.
Let's also though ask the question, you
know, how realistic is this because one
thing is how.
How, how fast does she have to accelerate
to get up to a, a speed like this?
So let's just consider that for a minute.
[SOUND] Leave the, the v number here, and
we'll remind ourselves that gamma [SOUND]
is 15,000, to get us there.
So, let's think about this.
Let's, you know, we know that.
Us humans we can't stand more than
certain types of acceleration.
And so we want a relatively gentle
acceleration for the spaceship but enough
to get Alice up to speed fairly quickly.
So lets just say that acceleration equals
10 meters per second squared, in other
words, what that is saying is.
Ten meters per second, per second, so her
velocity increases by ten meters per
second, every second, that's literally
what acceleration is, ten meters per
second squared is.
Ten meters per second, every second, so
that's increasing every second, ten
meters per second, every second.
That's roughly the acceleration due to
gravity which is 9.8 meters per second
squared.
And we know we can live in that type of
environment, so if our first spaceship
had a constant acceleration of 10 meters
per second squared, should feel pushing

on her the normal force of Earth's

gravity, and so presumably that would
work.
So if we can have that constant
acceleration, how long would it take to
get up to essentially the speed of light
or very, very close to it.
Just do a simple calculation.
Well, the formula is, velocity is
acceleration times sin, just A times the
elapse time, that you're going with.
And so, we know the velocity here is
essentially C, 0.9999p, you know, times
C.
Acceleration is 10.
So, essentially the velocity is, let's
just say, we get right up to the speed of
light.
So we know that's 3 times 10 to the
eighth meters per second, in other words
Really .999999 times that, but we'll just
round it to three times 10 eighth meters
per second, equals acceleration here is
10.
That's what were assuming, times the
time.
How long is it going to take us to get up
to this, using acceleration of 10 meters
per second squared.
Well you do the math there, it's not, not
too difficult, convert it into days, say,
and you, you find that T is approximately
equal to 347 days, he said, well.
Hey, that's not too bad, if I can
accelerate at a, a reasonable
acceleration like that.
For 347 days, I'm up to essentially the
speed of light.
[SOUND] and so Alice's trip then looks
maybe a little more promising.
Unfortunately there's another catch here
and that catch is the energy involved.
To do something like this, because, well,
later on, this week, we'll talk about the
famous equation, E equals MC squared.
That also came out in the miracle year of
1905, in, Einstein's September paper.
So we'll get to that.
But, just to let you know, one of the
results that come out of that is.
The energy involved to accelerate as you
get up to speeds close to the speed of
light also increases by gamma.
And therefore what happens is, remember
as v get very close to the speed of
light, gamma gets larger, larger, larger
and tends toward infinity.
So really, to get up to these speeds.
Close to the speed of light, takes, takes
massive amounts of energy for any

relatively large mass, like a spaceship.

We can actually get subatomic particles
going that fast, but even a subatomic
particle takes a lot of, of energy to to
do that.
So, unfortunately not very practical
there, unless we could come up with some
way to generate a lot of energy, and
design a spaceship to do it, and so on.
And so forth.
one more thing though you might say, well
you know, maybe we don't need to get all
the way up to here, what if we just said,
you know what.
What if we could just take the trip at
just nine tenths the speed of light?
Okay, so may, that would reduce the
energy requirements, perhaps.
And, maybe it's more practical that way.
But remember what happens then to gamma,
with vehicles 0.9c.
Gamma is about 2.3 for that.
And, with gamma equal 2.3 so, well, maybe
the energy, if energy requirements sort
of scaled according to gamma.
Perhaps that isn't so bad.
But remember what that does to Alice's
trip now.
Remember the time, on her clock.
Is 30,000 years divided by gamma.
as Bob sees it, as he's observing her
clock, and as she's observing her clock
tick as well.
And therefore, if gamma is only 2.3, then
the time on Alice's clock that ticks off
on her, her journey to the center of the
galaxy.
Is about 13,000 years.
And so clearly, she's not going to make,
you know, make it even, even close,
nowhere near the center of the galaxy.
She won't even get to the next star,
really, before she gets old,
unfortunately.
So, traveling the galaxy, yes, it is
certainly possible.
In, in theory and we can imagine
situations like that.
But the amount of energy involved is just
way beyond our capabilities, at the
moment, and yet we do see effects like
this.
Certainly with, as we talked about
before, in the twin paradox in the
subatomic world where it can actually
get.
Particles up to that speed, whether
they're artificially accelerated or
naturally accelerated.
Like the neuron example we did.

So unfortunately I have to burst our

bubble in terms of traveling the galaxy,
we don't know, have anything like warp
drives that we know of at the moment.
But who knows?
Perhaps some day in the far, far distant
future, we'll we'll figure something like
that out.
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