speed of light flattens things out

[batmanmg]

a teacher once told me that when traveling at the speed of light everything becomes flat perpendicular to the velocity... and by flat i mean it becomes 2 dimensional... if he wasn't pulling my leg... then what about movement in the 4th dimension?

if you move through 4d space at the speed of light... wouldn't everything flaten out and become 3 dimensional?

i've also heard that scientists are theorising that there is no such thing as length... that length is only a consept of perseption due to reletivity... i'm probably rehashing the idea completely wrong...

but if legth isn't real... then are we all in fact 2d bodys essentialy preceiving other 2d bodys to be 3d becuase of our slow velocity...

and does that mean that what we think of as the 4th dimension is really only the 3rd dimension? or does all of it simply mean that there is no 1st dimesion?

[PWrong]

a teacher once told me that when traveling at the speed of light everything becomes flat perpendicular to the velocity... and by flat i mean it becomes 2 dimensional...

What he meant was, the faster you get, the shorter you are to a stationary observer (in your direction of motion). When you reach the speed of light, I will measure your length as 0. Your other dimensions will stay the same. (Typo fixed by jinydu)

if you move through 4d space at the speed of light... wouldn't everything flaten out and become 3 dimensional?

Yes, but only to a stationary observer. You won't see your spaceship change.

i've also heard that scientists are theorising that there is no such thing as length... that length is only a consept of perseption due to reletivity... i'm probably rehashing the idea completely wrong...

This is only a hypothesis. Supposedly, length may derive from some other concept. This doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but there's something else out there, which we should be measuring instead of length. It's not directly related to relativity, in fact it has more to do with string theory.

but if legth isn't real... then are we all in fact 2d bodys essentialy preceiving other 2d bodys to be 3d becuase of our slow velocity...

Slow velocity compared to what?

I see what you mean, but length contraction isn't so much about reducing the dimension, it's just about changing the length.[/u]

[batmanmg]

slow velocity compared to the speed of light...

so is it like color? we once thought that things looked a certain color becuase it simply was that color. but now we know its becuase certain wavelengths of light get trapped by it and the other wavelengths reflects off creating the hue we see...

not that length has anything to do with wavelengths, but that its a concept that is hypotheticaly redefined.