The appearance of fast moving objects

A short Overview

Motivation:

Imagine a speed of light of approximately 30 km/h, only. Would then a cyclist look similar to that in Mr. Tompkins' dream during a lecture about the theory of relativity? And would the cyclist observe the buildings at the roadside shortened as in the right picture?

Relativistic versus classical physics:

Is the appearance of fast moving bodies due to classical and relativistic physics indeed as different as the thinking of Galileo Galilei and Albert Einstein?

Movement towards Einstein (relativistically calculated) und Galilei (classically calculated)

How do different speeds influence the perception of the object?

If the camera moves toward the object with nearly the speed of light we see it in a former position.
A look into the past!

(Inspite of equal distance the object moving with high speed seems to be more distant!)

What is the color of a fast moving object?

Additionally, the perception of fast moving objects is influenced by the Doppler effect and the abberation of light.

(The same situation - without (left) and with (right) considering the Doppler effect)

Acceleration:

In the case of acceleration an additional surprising effect occurs: Inspite of the decreasing distance the object at first seems to dissipate!

The cameras are moving with equal accelleration - calculated with classical (left) and relativistc (right) physics.

Superluminal velocity in classical physics

In classical physics, too, the speed of light is finite. But, differnt from relativistic physics it is not the upper limit of speeds: Objects could (theoretically) move faster than light with drastic consequences.

(Object (left) and camera are moving with double speed of light.

Introduction!

Directly ti the movies!