Exercise for the reader: Assuming average human eyesight, how many picoseconds away from a collision are you if you can read that size of text and the relative velocity between you and the car ahead of you is large enough that the red label is sufficiently blueshifted to look blue?
The sticker should also say something like "But don't worry, we're going to be evaporated in a huge explosion anyway, due to the gigantic release of energy when you crash into my car in a few nanoseconds."
Incidentally, my limited understanding and 5 seconds of research tells me the blueshift and redshift are directly related. One is linked to lower speeds and one to higher speeds. The sticker itself is red, so the joke is saying you must be travelling at some fraction of the speed of light to see the sticker as red and if you were going slower it would appear blue.
So it would seem to me in my very limited understanding that this is in fact, to do with redshift....
I was trying to be funny, but the 2 are related as in they are opposite cases of the same underlying phenomenon.
The sticker itself is red, so the joke is saying you must be travelling at some fraction of the speed of light to see the sticker as red and if you were going slower it would appear blue.
I'm not sure if you actually understand it and just did a brainfart while typing, or actually don't understand it well, so I'll just explain...
In both cases (redshift and blueshift), you need to be going fast enough relative to the sticker for either of them to happen in any noticeable way. Although it still happens even if you are going only 1 cm/s
The sticker is red and you will see it being red if you are not moving relative to the sticker. i.e. if the car is parked and you are just standing behind it, it will be red (don't take my word for it. Go stand in front of a red thing and look at it to find out that you see red colour)
If you are going away from the sticker, you will observe a redshift. And since the sticker is red (let's assume for simplicity that it is the reddest of red (whatever that would mean)) the redshift will make it go infrared and hence you won't be able to see it with human vision.
If you are going towards the sticker, you will observe a blue shift and you can use the crude, but useful VIBGYOR to deduce that if you are not fast enough to see Blue, you can expect to see either of Orange, Yellow, Green.
This effect is similar to the phenomenon that occurs to sound. i.e. when a car comes towards you with the horn continuously blowing, you will hear a higher pitch and when the car with the horn blowing is going away from you, you hear a lower pitched horn sound. The reason this is more easily observable with sound, is because sound in air is slow enough for us to notice this.
Bonus: I was playing the game X4: Foundations and realised that they actually have simulated this effect in the in-game sounds, which was an impressive little detail and I loved it.
The color also depends on the ink's near-infrared reflectivity (since the sun and halogen headlamps emit infrared, that will get shifted into the red to green parts of the visible spectrum when red becomes blue)
45 Comments
glorkon@lemmy.world · 78 pts · 246d
Clever, I like it. I wonder how many people read it and have no clue what it means.
three@lemmy.zip · -18 pts · 245d
Clickbait f*cebook-ass post
village604@adultswim.fan · 11 pts · 245d
Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 245d
Santa baby, piss a little into the milk
for me
three@lemmy.zip · -9 pts · 245d
Your mother
village604@adultswim.fan · 5 pts · 245d
That wasn't very nice of her
RiceMunk@sopuli.xyz · 67 pts · 246d
Exercise for the reader: Assuming average human eyesight, how many picoseconds away from a collision are you if you can read that size of text and the relative velocity between you and the car ahead of you is large enough that the red label is sufficiently blueshifted to look blue?
Zkuld@lemmy.world · 67 pts · 246d
for 800nm to 400nm, we need gamma=2. So v~.86c. At 20m this gives you ~80ns.
moriquende@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 245d
For perspective, this speed is:
In one second, you would travel around:
Which is around 6.43 times around the Earth's equator.
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 245d
But how many Olympic sized swimming pools full of jello?
groet@feddit.org · 17 pts · 245d
About 3 large boulders the size of a small boulder.
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 245d
Did you see the boulder post too?
We are all the size of boulders on this blessed day.
moriquende@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 245d
Depends on the flavor
fartographer@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 245d
So, some paint might get exchanged?
not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 245d
It was a graveyard graph.
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 244d
He caught up in a flash!
glorkon@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 246d
The sticker should also say something like "But don't worry, we're going to be evaporated in a huge explosion anyway, due to the gigantic release of energy when you crash into my car in a few nanoseconds."
janus2@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 246d
does the observer have to be able to see the sticker with normal human eyesight? if so that constrains distance (which maybe doesn't matter?)
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 245d
At that point it’s like the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey
rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works · 49 pts · 246d
So 75000km/s is too fast? Boooo, get off the road grandad!
Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 245d
So is the reader fast or would it work the other way where the car with sticker is fast?
ilinamorato@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 245d
If the sticker is blue, one or the other of you is about to cease being biology and start being physics.
glorkon@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 246d
Even then, a BMW would tailgate and flash its headlights at you on a German autobahn.
curled@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 15 pts · 245d
Anyone would do that on an autobahn, get out of the passing lane slowpoke xD
far_university1990@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 245d
Best thing is when small car from 1990 push away large bmw or porsche because they have 900 hp engine with dual turbo and nitrous injection.
I love sleeper car.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 246d
I am not sure i understand. Is it something to do with redshift?
stray@pawb.social · 44 pts · 246d
Yup. Here's a neat visual and more info on the page where I found it:
https://stickmanphysics.com/stickman-physics-home/unit-10-waves/doppler-effect/
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 245d
Damn it. Imgur is blocked in the UK. Cant see that image.
expatriado@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 245d
you're going way too fast, shifting into UV now
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 245d
UV is blocked in the UK.
Chef_Boyargee@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 245d
Probably for the better. Even with it having Milla Jovovich, it wasn’t very good.
stray@pawb.social · 5 pts · 245d
Oh, I didn't realize. I wanted to upload it, but Lemmy wouldn't let me, so I just picked somewhere. Try the original link:
ulterno@programming.dev · 7 pts · 246d
No, it has to do with blueshift.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 245d
Right, thanks for the explaination...
Incidentally, my limited understanding and 5 seconds of research tells me the blueshift and redshift are directly related. One is linked to lower speeds and one to higher speeds. The sticker itself is red, so the joke is saying you must be travelling at some fraction of the speed of light to see the sticker as red and if you were going slower it would appear blue.
So it would seem to me in my very limited understanding that this is in fact, to do with redshift....
ulterno@programming.dev · 9 pts · 245d
I was trying to be funny, but the 2 are related as in they are opposite cases of the same underlying phenomenon.
I'm not sure if you actually understand it and just did a brainfart while typing, or actually don't understand it well, so I'll just explain...
VIBGYORto deduce that if you are not fast enough to see Blue, you can expect to see either of Orange, Yellow, Green.Bonus: I was playing the game X4: Foundations and realised that they actually have simulated this effect in the in-game sounds, which was an impressive little detail and I loved it.
tetris11@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 245d
No, it's just that democrats tend to drive faster than republicans because of their better cars and increased motivation to get out of red states
Sharlot@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 245d
Best kind of science joke: funny and educational. Bonus points for making people think about Doppler before speeding.
iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 246d
Hey I used I have one of these. Slightly different design though. Was always my favourite sticker.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub · 12 pts · 246d
If that sticker is blue, only the laws of physics can judge me.
Deceptichum@quokk.au · 9 pts · 246d
FosterMolasses@leminal.space · 8 pts · 245d
This was good, had a hearty chuckle
Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 245d
Mine was sensible.
20cello@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 246d
Doppler
Devial@discuss.online · 5 pts · 246d
Bluewing@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 245d
Light speed? No! Engage Ludicrous speed!
far_university1990@reddthat.com · 1 pts · 245d
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org · 3 pts · 245d
The color also depends on the ink's near-infrared reflectivity (since the sun and halogen headlamps emit infrared, that will get shifted into the red to green parts of the visible spectrum when red becomes blue)
Illecors@lemmy.cafe · 1 pts · 245d