Growing Faster than

the Speed of Light

 

Using Pythagoras’ Theorem to Find Difference between Actual Growth & Apparent Growth

 

Part 1

 

Pythagoras’ Theorem states:

 

 

We’ll also use:

 

 

 

Image A

 

 

We have a right-angled triangle with sides of 3, 4 and ‘?’.

 

We can find the side length ‘?’ by doing:

 

 

(in light-months and to 2 decimal places)

 

This is the length of the red line, the left hand edge of the triangle.  This is the ‘apparent growth’.

To find the difference between this and the ‘actual growth’ (the blue line, which is 1 light-month), we subtract the ‘actual growth’:

 

 

So the difference in apparent growth and actual growth after 3 months is 1.65 light-months.

 

How do you think this difference will change in subsequent images as time continues?

Will it increase, by more and more or less and less, or will it decrease, by more and more or less and less?