Do drummers have the ability to transcend time and space?

CCdrummer

Senior Member
My speed is slowly improving, and I am beginning to notice that as I get a little bit faster, I am starting to perceive more space as far as time intervals between the notes. Therefore does this mean that time around me is passing more quickly relative to me as long as I play?

There is so much about theoretical physics and relativity that I just don't know!!!
 
My speed is slowly improving, and I am beginning to notice that as I get a little bit faster, I am starting to perceive more space as far as time intervals between the notes. Therefore does this mean that time around me is passing more quickly relative to me as long as I play?

There is so much about theoretical physics and relativity that I just don't know!!!

No. For time to slow down in terms of relativity, there has to be at least two observers. One must be travelling extremely fast for time distortion to become noticeable. At 50%c (c=speed of light), 1.0 seconds would seem like ~1.175 seconds. You don't reach 2.0 seconds until about 85%c. Unfortunately the world around you is not travelling that fast, and you are not as well. And you still lack another observer.
 
I didn't realize the time dilation would be that high at only 50% of c. I think I read that there is a measurable time dilation when the space shuttle returns, even though it has been traveling nowhere near that velocity.

So then would it help if I made someone watch me? : )
 
At 0.3km/s, that is the speed of a typical subsonic jet, time dilation would be 10^-6, or 1.000 000 000 000 5 seconds. I took this directly from my physics book.

The person watching you would still have to be moving.

Here are two charts for time dilation.
 

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Isn't that the lorentz equation?

Wow, I wasn't really serious about this thread, and now I am getting a bit more than I asked for!
 
Nothing to apologize for Mr. Polack, I appreciate the chart, very interesting to contemplate, as well as mind blowing.
 
The Lorentz equations and the special relatively concepts only apply when you are not accelerating. When your stick goes up and comes back down, its constantly accelerating, so I don't know the we can make these generalizations, but I may be wrong.

Also, you the player aren't really moving at all when you are playing singles, just your sticks, so you won't experience any of this if it were happening. I consider you, the play, the observer, and the sticks the relativistic object.. Just for the sake of argument, say you could play singles at relativistic speeds, as you play faster and faster, you wouldn't be able to perceive the increase in speed because the sticks are experience time dilation. Like when particles accelerate to speeds near the speed of light as those are eaten by a blackhole, an observe would see that cloud of particles slow down so much that light emitted by the particles would stretch into red-er wavelengths and you'll see the cloud fade away very slowly, very very slowly.
 
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I can barely transcend my appetite for pizza, so I'm probably not going to put a dent in time or space.

Just tellin' it like it is,
8Mile
 
The Lorentz equations and there special relatively concepts only apply when you are not accelerating. When your stick goes up and comes back down, its constantly accelerating, so I don't know the we can make these generalizations, but I may be wrong.

Also, you the player aren't really moving at all when you are playing singles, just your sticks, so you won't experience any of this if it were happening. I consider you, the play, the observer, and the sticks the relativistic object.. Just for the sake of argument, say you could play singles at relativistic speeds, as you play faster and faster, you wouldn't be able to perceive the increase in speed because the sticks are experience time dilation. Like when particles accelerate to speeds near the speed of light as those are eaten by a blackhole, an observe would see that cloud of particles slow down so much that light emitted by the particles would stretch into red-er wavelengths and you'll see the cloud fade away very slowly, very very slowly.

For relativity to be considered, someone has to be moving. There has to be two observers because changes in time and length are all relative to the individual observer. As one observer passes the other, they both experience the same thing relative to them. The person moving will observe no change in their state, but will observe time slowing down and length contraction of the stationary observer. The stationary observer will observe the same exact thing about the moving observer. Without a second observer, there is nothing relative to compare. It is like being both tall and short at the same time. It is only relative to the people you are standing next to. This can't happen if you are by yourself. As for sticks being an observer, this can't happen.

As for a black hole, you are correct, but nothing is actually slowing down. The red shift, and even blue shift in wavelengths is dependent on the position of the black hole and the light being sucked into it in relation to earth. The event horizon is what starts the bending of light into the black hole as it rotates around it, and why we see the shift in wavelength and subsequent stretching and slowing down of the light. There is a term for what this effect would be on the human body: spaghettification. We would be stretched and compressed simultaneously, while also being moleculerly destroyed into a singularity.
 
Sorry, the conversation is very stimulating, but given the bent of the thread and especially the title, it couldn't be helped...
 

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The Lorentz equations and there special relatively concepts only apply when you are not accelerating. When your stick goes up and comes back down, its constantly accelerating, so I don't know the we can make these generalizations, but I may be wrong.

Also, you the player aren't really moving at all when you are playing singles, just your sticks, so you won't experience any of this if it were happening. I consider you, the play, the observer, and the sticks the relativistic object.. Just for the sake of argument, say you could play singles at relativistic speeds, as you play faster and faster, you wouldn't be able to perceive the increase in speed because the sticks are experience time dilation. Like when particles accelerate to speeds near the speed of light as those are eaten by a blackhole, an observe would see that cloud of particles slow down so much that light emitted by the particles would stretch into red-er wavelengths and you'll see the cloud fade away very slowly, very very slowly.

For relativity to be considered, someone has to be moving. There has to be two observers because changes in time and length are all relative to the individual observer. As one observer passes the other, they both experience the same thing relative to them. The person moving will observe no change in their state, but will observe time slowing down and length contraction of the stationary observer. The stationary observer will observe the same exact thing about the moving observer. Without a second observer, there is nothing relative to compare. It is like being both tall and short at the same time. It is only relative to the people you are standing next to. This can't happen if you are by yourself. As for sticks being an observer, this can't happen.

As for a black hole, you are correct, but nothing is actually slowing down. The red shift, and even blue shift in wavelengths is dependent on the position of the black hole and the light being sucked into it in relation to earth. The event horizon is what starts the bending of light into the black hole as it rotates around it, and why we see the shift in wavelength and subsequent stretching and slowing down of the light. There is a term for what this effect would be on the human body: spaghettification. We would be stretched and compressed simultaneously, while also being moleculerly destroyed into a singularity.

Hmmm, so I suppose the answer to my original question is "No"
 
Loving this thread :)

As we improve we seem to slice time more finely (subjectively) - we can make sense of more things within a smaller time period. The finer the slices, the more in the zone you are. That's why we have to leave performance to our unconscious mind - our conscious mind isn't fast enough.

And talking of speed, that light speed graph really makes things clear. So, if the average stroke is 10cm, then by my rough calcsmoving at the speed of light would work out to be around 179,875,474,800 bpm.

Matt and Tom eat your hearts out.
 
For relativity to be considered, something has to be moving relative to something else.

You keep losing me at this requirement that there most be two seemingly intelligent observers. If I'm sitting on a bench and I see a train fly be a relativistic speeds relative to me, I will still see all the appropriate relativistic effects on the train, regardless if there is someone on the train to see them happen to me.

If sticks are moving relative to you at relativistic speeds, you will definitely see relativistic effects, and they will certainly not be limited to time diluation. These sticks will be constantly accelerating so this situation falls under the relm of general relativity, not special relativity where Lorentz equations are as hard as it gets.

Objects are spaghettified as they enter a black hole because of the massive gravity differential across the length of the object that the black hole's gravity well creates.. doesn't have to be a human. The event horizon is the sphere the we would perceive as the black hole's "surface": the sphere surrounding the singularity that's volume is defined where the speed of light is less than or equal to the escape velocity of the black hole.

I feel like I could nit pick definitions(semantics) with you all day, but I won't, this isn't a physics forum, haha. Interesting problem OP. I imagine for two (very massive) sticks alternating are close to the speed light, we'd have a situation close to what happens when two black holes orbit each other are close proximity. The two gravity wells tangle up and do all kinds of crazy stuff, worm holes too if I remember correctly.

Anon: Great idea on the calcs. The way I see it, the stick accelerates coming up and coming down during the stroke. In other words, its 0 m/s at the top of the stroke (10 cm above head), 3e8 m/s as it heads the head. Its not just traveling 3e8 m/s the whole time :) Taking that into consideration, my calcs show that your stick will hit the head at the speed of light if you play 16th notes at 67,500,000,000,000,000,000 bpm.
 
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The way I see it, the stick accelerates coming up and coming down during the stroke. In other words, its 0 m/s at the top of the stroke (10 cm above head), 3e8 m/s as it heads the head. Its not just traveling 3e8 m/s the whole time :) Taking that into consideration, my calcs show that your stick will hit the head at the speed of light if you play 16th notes at 67,500,000,000,000,000,000 bpm.

Excellent correction, badly needed :) Trouble is, I was thinking I had something to shoot at but those extra quadrillions are very dispiriting, a bit like the numbers young people see when hoping to enter the housing market. Maybe put a pair of sticks in the Large Hadron Collider? We might discover Gadd's Boson!
 
I feel like I could nit pick definitions(semantics) with you all day, but I won't, this isn't a physics forum, haha. Interesting problem OP. I imagine for two (very massive) sticks alternating are close to the speed light, we'd have a situation close to what happens when two black holes orbit each other are close proximity. The two gravity wells tangle up and do all kinds of crazy stuff, worm holes too if I remember correctly.

Anon: Great idea on the calcs. The way I see it, the stick accelerates coming up and coming down during the stroke. In other words, its 0 m/s at the top of the stroke (10 cm above head), 3e8 m/s as it heads the head. Its not just traveling 3e8 m/s the whole time :) Taking that into consideration, my calcs show that your stick will hit the head at the speed of light if you play 16th notes at 67,500,000,000,000,000,000 bpm.

Wouldn't the sticks, in relation to one another, fall more under the Principal of Mass-Energy Equivalence (E=mc^2) as opposed to relativity of time? Relativity of time clearly states there must be two observers for time dilation to occur, and at least one of them must be in motion.

Are you calculating the bpm as the distance they travel or their resulting speed at that many strokes?
 
Mr Insane, my approach was to work on an average stick height and divide it into the speed of light per minute. Whatever, I don't think an Ambo would handle that kind of speed.

While we're being white and nerdy, a new element was added to the Periodic Table this year. It's called Ununpentium. Weird. Why not just call it Pentium?
 
Are you calculating the bpm as the distance they travel or their resulting speed at that many strokes?

I calculated the time it would take for the tip of the stick to accelerate from rest to 3e8 m/s over a distance of 10 cm. First you calculate the average acceleration, then the time. That's the time it'll take for the down stroke; the upstroke will take the same amount of time as the downstroke. Each stick does 2 upstrokes and 2 downstrokes per beat of sixteenths, so you can figure out how long each beat will be in seconds. You can work it out from there to get beats per minute.

Ah yes, Gadd's boson - the fundmental particle of the pocket. Lmao.
 
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