Craig,
The ship is stationary and accelerating from its perspective and current velocity. Only outside observers believe that it is gaining mass. Another observer might conclude that the mass of the exhaust radiation is greater in the same proportion as the overall mass is increasing which would result in a thrust that compensates. Try to look at the problem from the viewpoint of the space man on board and you might come to some interesting conclusions. For example, say the mass of the ship and everything on board has doubled from our outside viewpoint at a certain velocity. Any radiation exhausting as thrust would likewise have two times the earlier mass that we observed. This extra momentum would generate a net total thrust that exactly balances the extra ship mass so the total acceleration is the same. I suspect this relationship holds true for outside observers. Those on board measure constant acceleration regardless of the velocity of outside observers. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Craig <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, Nov 15, 2013 5:23 am Subject: Re: [Vo]:Local Calculated Velocity of Space Ship On 11/15/2013 01:44 AM, David Roberson wrote: Steven, The hypothetical ship is undergoing an acceleration of 10 "G's". This is determined by an accelerometer on board that is quite accurate. If this level of acceleration is applied for the 1 year period, then I can calculate that my resulting velocity would be approximately 10 times c greater than the initial velocity of the ship. As a ship approaches the speed of light, its mass increases such that any force being used to accelerate it would be applied to a growing mass. At the speed of light, the theoretical mass of the ship becomes infinite, preventing any further increase in speed. Craig
