Maybe they could have their own talk show. And it could broadcast coast to coast
*ghost-to-ghost
Or they’re flung in a straight-line tangent out from Earth’s orbit, like water drops flying off a spinning sponge
So everyone who ever died spends all eternity consciously drifting in space.
So eventually, the ghosts stopped thinking.
I think about the same thing every time I watch a time travel movie or show.
They should teleport into empty space every time
Well, not The Doctor.
Who?
Exactly
I guess that depends on whether you only travel through time (time vs space), or whether you follow the time-line back (aka. travel through time and space, kinda like both you and I are doing right now).
EDIT: there’s also the reference point, and whether you can bring a physical vessel, or have to possess your younger self.
Back to the Future appears to be using a kind of relative spatial reference point, and you bring your body along the ride.
Contrary, Steins Gate (the part shown in the series) uses a body as reference, and has you “possess” said body. Though it hints that Back to the Future-like travel is also possible.
Not sure if I can name any story where time and space are disconnected.
Massless light is still affected by gravity, though…
Mass distorts spacetime, which to an outside observer appears to change the direction light travels. The light travels in a straight line.
Gravity doesn’t alter the particle’s trajectory (or ours, for that matter). The warping of spacetime from Earth’s mass causes our movement through space to accelerate “down” at ~9.8 m/s^2
So the ghosts are in the center of the Earth, in nearly literal hell.
Well that’s just a theory, albeit good, and there’s a good chunk of modern science that refuses to marry it, so let’s not be too sure about it, shall we?
Edit: Wikipedia summarises it nicely:
Although general relativity is highly regarded for its elegance and accuracy it is not without limitations: the gravitational singularities inside of black holes, the ad hoc postulation of dark matter, as well as dark energy and its relation to the cosmological constant are among the current unsolved mysteries regarding gravity; all of which signal the collapse of the general theory of relativity at different scales and highlight the need for a gravitational theory that goes into the quantum realm.
Edit: Also highly recommend this read: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/quantum-gravity/
I really hate that people just accept these advanced theories as objective truth. It’s just the best theory we have right now, that doesn’t mean that’s how it actually works. It’s good enough that we can almost always just use the theory and get good results, but then people get all pissy when you point out that it’s still just a theory and is not without its flaws.
If the spacetime is distorted, and the light no longer appears to travel in a straight line, does that not mean that spacetime itself and the light that travels in are no longer straight?
How can a straight thing be distorted but still be straight?
That’s called General Relativity and Reference Frames.
Start watching PBS Spacetime if you actually want to get into it.
You’re also entirely missing the point of the comment that was a joke entirely re-explaining the “reason” for ghosts ending up at the center of the Earth, which is implied by the original comment.
It is straight in reference to the distorted spacetime.
But light isn’t a particle it’s a wave. I mean, just look at it… Oh… Forget it. It’s a particle.
It’s neither a particle nor a wave, it’s a photon.
A zebra is neither a horse nor a tiger, though it shares properties with both.
It was a joke – it behaves as a wave until you observe it; then it collapses into a particle.
I had to search for a bit but I finally found this !science_memes@mander.xyz post: https://mander.xyz/post/3197041
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i mean, presuming ghosts can talk to each other there should at least be some company, and they ought to get to see some celestial objects now and then.
and hell at least you have space to stare at, as opposed to the nothingness of limbo
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This sounds like it should be the premise of a Doctor Who episode.
If that were true, they’d speed away from us at about 900mph.
Much faster than that, even. The surface of the planet moves at up to ~1000mph relative to the earth’s center of mass, but once you factor in the orbit around the sun, the orbit around the galaxy, and even the galaxy’s motion, you’re looking at miles per second instead of mph.
One article I found when googling this says that measuring relative to the cosmic microwave background, we are moving at 390 km/s.
Relative to what, though? A lot of lore has ghost tied to locations on earth, which are typically fixed places. I guess if there was some kind of astology ghost tied to certain stars it might rocket off in some unexpected way.
Maybe that could be a tool in some exorcist’s bag. Convince a ghost it’s tied to some stars, and trick it into changing its frame of reference.
Sorry, adhd, just saw the microwave background part. What i said still makes sense though.
I think this might be the most fun answer, that the ghost decides its own frame of reference and can be tricked to choosing the wrong thing then just fly off into space at incredible speed.
Are they also inertialess? Being immune to gravity won’t make them just stop; stop, relative to what?
So, they continue in a straight line, while their body moves in rotation with the Earth’s surface × orbit around the sun × orbit around Sagittarius A × whatever movement the Milky Way is making based on the local cluster… I wonder how much angular movement the supercluster is making.
I think the inertia question would affect the velocity of the ghost relative to the rest of the planet. But unless the ghost has the necessary movement powers to maintain their position, I have to think the earth’s path versus the ghost’s straight line through space would diverge pretty quickly.
Interesting to think about, especially in light of the other reply discussing the hypothetical of ghosts being able to choose & switch frames of reference.
Honestly though, since just about everything is affected by the way gravity bends spacetime, including light, I bet they’d stay with the earth. Maybe just have to hover above the surface in order to not fall down to the core of the planet.
You just made death infinitely more scary
I’m so sorry
I misread ghosts as “goats”
If they’re unaffected by gravity, chances are they don’t have mass. If they don’t have mass, they’re not constrained by the Higgs field, which in turn means that they can never move at any velocity below light speed.
Their unfortunate fate is to roam across all of space at the maximum possible velocity in perpetuity.
Rick: “Ok… I need to leave gravity unfinished and make floors finished business.”
