Dueling Your Mirror Image

Suppose you are three meters away from your mirror image self. Your doppelganger does everything that you do. And you’ve decided you must kill them.

It takes light 1/100,000,000th of a second for the light to reach your doppelganger. In other words, they react to what you did 1/100,000,000th of a second ago. If you could draw a pistol and fire a round, in 1/100,000,000th the of a second you would be firing just as the light is reaching the mirror image to have it start drawing its weapon. Like Han Solo, you will always shoot first. :slight_smile:

However, if the bullet takes 1/1,000th of a second to get to the shadow, then they will fire before the bullet can get there and kill the them and kill you.

Even if you have a laser pistol, it will take the same amount of time for the laser to get to the them, which means it will be firing just as it gets hit. So, I think I have that right so far. In order to kill the them before it can fire at you, then you need a FTL weapon.

Suppose you had a weapon that could fire a projectile that covers the 3 meters at twice the speed of light, then I think I’m correct in saying that the shadow would be halfway through drawing. It it is travels 1000 times the speed of light, then the shadow would be 1/1000 through the the act of drawing. And so on.

Do I have the right?

(Inspired by a cover of Lucky Luke in which he shoots his shadow on a wall before it can even draw)

P.s. - I know there are ways to kill the doppelganger without dueling them. That’s not the point. I’m just analyzing the Lucky Luke panel pedantically. I.e., canonically Lucky Luke has a revolver that shoots FTL bullets!

Disregarding (1) that, as far as physicists know, nothing can be faster than light and (2) that it’s hard to imagine how a mirror image could fire anything that could kill you: I don’t think it’s correct to say in the 1000-times-faster-than-light scenario that your mirror image is one thousandth through the act of drawing by the time your ray hits it. The ray arrives there before the light does, and the mirror simply reflects the light that bounces off it. So by the time your ray hits the mirror, the mirror image hasn’t even started drawing yet and hasn’t begun the act of drawing at all.

Just to get it out of the way, even if you said it was not part of the discussion.

I have a lot of experience fighting doppelgangers (in video games), and what you can do is find some kind of obstacle that is not perfectly mirrored on the doppelganger’s side and trick him into falling into it, if is a hole.

Alternatively, you can find a wall that is not symmetrical that allows you to move while your doppelganger is stuck. Once you are not in mirrored positions anymore, just go up and stab him.

Not a mirror… a doppelganger that mirrors you.

The doppelganger will be struck in your pose 1/100,000,000th of a second prior + the amount of time (Tm = Tf - 0.000 000 001 + Tp)it takes for your projectile to get there. So if you drew a Td=0s, then you fired at Tf=0.000 000 001s, at that time the doppelganger is just starting to receive the light that you’ve moved. If the projectile is twice the speed of light, then it arrives 0.000 000 000 5s (Tp) later, and the doppelganger will in the position you were in at Tm=0.000 000 000 5s, which is halfway through your draw.

As another example.

Suppose it takes you 1 second to draw and fire instead.

Tm = 1s - 0.000 000 001 + 0.000 000 000 5. So the doppelganger would appear to be in the position T=0.999 999 999 5.

Interestingly, this means that their trigger would be 0.000 000 000 5 seconds from being fully pulled and they would not fire (assuming your shot instantly killed them).

The correct answer is to pick up a chair and beat your twin to death with it. He’ll try to do the same, but there won’t be a chair for him to pick up, so he’ll try to swing his bare arms at you.

Just in case you want to see the image I’m referring to.

True, but the doppelganger won’t even start drawing until he sees you draw, which won’t happen until the light from your drawing reaches him. So you’ll be halfway into your draw when the doppelganger begins to draw (this assumes instantaneous reaction). In your initial post, you were speaking of the shadow being halfway through drawing by the time the faster-than-light projectile hits him.

No, I will not be halfway through the draw when the doppelganger starts moving. If I draw and fire in 1/100 000 000th of a second, then I will have fired before any light has reached the doppelganger from when I started to draw.

Yeah. A projectile at twice the speed of light, the doppelganger would be halfway through the draw.

If it was going 1000 times the speed of light, then the doppelganger will have been moving for 0.000 000 000 000 000 1 seconds or 1/1000th through drawing.

You just grin enigmatically, snap your fingers, and shut down the simulation.
Assuming they don’t do it first…?

Just because your gun shoots a bullet that moves at twice the speed of light, doesn’t mean your drawing arm does, so he will start to draw when he sees your arm start to move - not when the bullet leaves your gun. Presumably your doppelganger won’t die at twice the speed of light either, and since you can’t move out of the way at Cx2, you will both die.

If this is a true image in a mirror, dodge to your right as firing to your right of your doppelganger. The mirror image will dodge right into your bullet while they will fire to your left and miss you.

Didn’t read the OP huh? :wink:

Oh, I read it. I took away from it what I could… ::shrug:: :wink: