Relativity at 1c

[Zacharine]

snip

And this is why I have to keep telling myself to leave common sense out of physics questions - common sense is all to often wrong.

Well, thanks for the answer.

No problem. Also, what you're talking about is only half of relativity as a whole. This is special relativity. There's also general relativity, which is equally cool and confusing. Check it out when your head is done asploding.

Oh, that is another can of worms I do not wish to open at this present time. Lately I've been dealing with quantum mechanics equations from my college days and that has been giving me enough of a headache. Suffice to say reality is awesome, and as one mr. Haldane put it: "... my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."

 

[zfactor]

And this is why I have to keep telling myself to leave common sense out of physics questions - common sense is all to often wrong.

Well, thanks for the answer.

Yup, we went over gravity in physics the other day (and that big equation with Gm1m2/r^2 if you don't know it, look up the law of universal gravitation) and someone asked if G is always constant. Our professor replied "it is for us, but it stops working once you get into black holes and the speed of light and stuff like that."

 

[Three Eyed Cyclops]

One thing that has not been considered here is if you can see the space ship itself. In order to "see" it, we look at reflected light off of it. The amount of time of interaction of light in a given area would be so small that the amount of light reflected would be too faint to pick up by most detectors (single photon detectors, possible but need to make sure you have an otherwise near noiseless environment). As well, depending on the angle of incidence, the interacting light would get extremely red/blue shifted.

 

[Outright Villainy]

And I get my ideas from common sense and that part of my mind I don't let other people talk to.

Common sense has no place in physics sir!

Go and try a course in Quantum mechanics.
I dare you.