Peter and Susan are facing each other in outer space. Both of them ignite their their incredibly powerful jet pack thrusters and accelerated away from each other to just over half the speed of light. From their original position they would appear to moving at just over half the speed of light, yet from Peter perspective, Susan will be moving faster than the speed of light, and vice versa. So whats going on here?
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4"Here's an conundrum I've devised" You and every other person who encounters special relativity. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Feb 15 '15 at 18:29
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Velocities do not add the way you think they do from everyday life (called Galilean velocity addition). See this http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/veltran.html – ChrisM Feb 15 '15 at 18:29
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@dmckee just a joke. But touche – martin Feb 15 '15 at 18:31