[sci.space] Solar Sails

douglas@reed.UUCP (P Douglas Reeder) (08/27/88)

One way to consider the redshift problem is to perform the following
thought experiment:
    Stand in front of a mirror.  Move the mirror forward and back.
The image of you (the photons bouncing off your surface) appears twice
as far away as mirror.  When you move the mirror away at velocity v,
your image move away at an apparant velocity of 2v, at slow velocities.
Now move the mirror away at a relativistic speed (I TOLD you it was a
thought expertiment!)  Your image move away from you at a higher
relativistic speed.  Since it it moving at relativists speed, it appears
redshifted.  Replace yourself with the sun and the mirror with a solar
sail.

-- 
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