Asri-unix.875
net.space
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!Marshall.WBST@PARC-MAXC
Tue Mar  2 10:21:39 1982
ucbvax!mhtsa!harpo!chico!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley's high-speed quasars
Relativistic velocities don't add like slower velocities. If
two objects are moving in opposite directions relative to
a third observer at velocities v1 and v2 then the velocity
of one object relative to the other is

	v = (v1 + v2) / (1 + (v1*v2)/(c^2))

The colliding beam experiments generally use particles
traveling more than 99% the speed of light so a naive
calculation would show they collide with a relative
velocity of 198% the speed of light. The above formula
gives 19800/19801 = 99.995% or still less than the speed of light.

Two quasars therefore never recede from each other at more than the speed of
light.

--Sidney Marshall

-----------------------------------------------------------------
 gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>
 of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/


This Usenet Oldnews Archive
article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.

2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 
 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.