Brain Teasers
Space Vacation
In the year 2100, a family went out into space for a vacation exactly one light-minute away from home. They used an advanced telescope to look at their clock. The child, Sam, was so exact at time. If it's 9:59, he stays up one minute until ten. One night, Sam looked through the telescope and saw the clock showed 9:59. But his dad said it was ten and he had to go to sleep. How is that possible?
The clock back at home was their ONLY time source.
The clock back at home was their ONLY time source.
Hint
Think about the properties of light.Answer
The clock was one light-minute away, so it took the light one minute to reach the telescope. The display was how it looked one minute ago. You have to add one minute, and therefore it was Sam's bedtime.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Good wording! I can enjoy puzzles similar to this one. Keep them coming and add a few more tricks to them.
Liked it a lot!!!
A bit easy... thanks for the morning tease.
Liked it a lot. Make some more like this one.
yawn...
Got a trick teaser coming on, "The Flag". It's pretty interesting. Check it out.
Once it gets accepted!
Once it gets accepted!
Well, you won't be seeing it...
it got rejected
As of 9/29/06
it got rejected
As of 9/29/06
I think you could have worded it so that you didn't outright say "light minute." Of course, if your intention was to make it simpler, then I take that back.
Kinda easy.
Try to reword the teasers so they don't make the clues so obvious. Keep trying.
I thought it was a great way to introduce the effect of light travel! Good Job!
Rather obvious and simple.
Nov 03, 2006
,,,,=^..^=,,,,? (='.'=)?
I think I solved this twelve light-seconds before I read it.
this was easy... thanks
COOL! Keep up the good work!
that was cool i got it but it took more then a sec
very easy but nice story
My eighth grade science teacher told us a story like this, something to the effect of "If aliens, 250 light-years away, looked at Earth through a telescope, they would see the American Revolution."
This sparked my question (which was never answered), "If these aliens had advanced spaceships that could travel at 99.99% of the speed of light (because nothing can travel at the speed of light) directly toward Earth, while maintaining a view of Earth's surface in their special telescope, would they see time on Earth passing a twice (199.99%) of normal speed?" This creates a paradox (he told me) because light cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Maybe someone smart here can help me.
This sparked my question (which was never answered), "If these aliens had advanced spaceships that could travel at 99.99% of the speed of light (because nothing can travel at the speed of light) directly toward Earth, while maintaining a view of Earth's surface in their special telescope, would they see time on Earth passing a twice (199.99%) of normal speed?" This creates a paradox (he told me) because light cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Maybe someone smart here can help me.
I think it has something to do with that Einstein's stuff.
Yeah, Einstein's law of relativity. I know it has all the complicated symbols that hopefully I'll understand someday, but basically, all it states is that if you move fast enough, everything will appear as if it's standing still (hard to explain here), and somehow...it is...standing still. Uuuuh...hmmmm...but if it took know time at all to go one light minute away...errrr...but did they travel forward in time in that light minute? Argh!!!
P.S. Has anyone seen that old Superman movie where Superman find Lois Lane dead, and he circles the earth really fast to go back in time?
P.S. Has anyone seen that old Superman movie where Superman find Lois Lane dead, and he circles the earth really fast to go back in time?
*No, not know. Sorry for the double post.
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