It's the ultimate ride for thrill-seekers: a rollercoaster hurtling down a track at near-light speed surrounded by colour changes and distortions. Now, an animation developed by physicist Michael Hush from the Australian National University in Canberra lets you see the effects described by Einstein's special theory of relativity, by creating a fictional world where the speed of light is about 5 metres per second.
As the ride begins, you experience colour shifting caused by the Doppler effect. Your surroundings also appear distorted as objects are seen at different points in time because of the finite speed of light. Due to the extreme velocity and the effect of angular compression, you start to see objects you've already passed by.
As the rollercoaster passes over a series of bumps, colour-shifting and distortion increase and decrease. At this point, the animators ignore changes in colour to accentuate the bending and twisting of objects. As the ride descends towards a big loop, angular compression affects the horizon, which first looks like a ball, then later seems to wrap around you. ?
In the final segment of the ride, a column looks stretched as part of it is seen at an earlier time. "The rollercoaster is travelling at about 90 per cent of light speed," says Savage. "The viewer's position changes a lot during the time it takes light to reach the viewer from the object."
Stay tuned for more mind-boggling animations in our Seeing Relativity series.
If you enjoyed this video, watch what it would look like to fall into a black hole or see exotic matter freefall in a test of Einstein's general theory of relativity.
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