Asri-unix.875 net.space utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!Marshall.WBST@PARC-MAXC Tue Mar 2 10:21:39 1982 ucbvax!mhtsa!harpo!chico!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley's high-speed quasars Relativistic velocities don't add like slower velocities. If two objects are moving in opposite directions relative to a third observer at velocities v1 and v2 then the velocity of one object relative to the other is v = (v1 + v2) / (1 + (v1*v2)/(c^2)) The colliding beam experiments generally use particles traveling more than 99% the speed of light so a naive calculation would show they collide with a relative velocity of 198% the speed of light. The above formula gives 19800/19801 = 99.995% or still less than the speed of light. Two quasars therefore never recede from each other at more than the speed of light. --Sidney Marshall ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.