Newton - that great master - proclaimed that space and time are absolute. Those were the standards by which the conceptia excluded were judged. What confused me before was that the very account of Newton's laws negate the possibility of absolute rest. Thus, there is no absolute motion, since there was nothing to compare it to. For these purposes artificial concepts of aether were invented. Components in space and time that were absolutely at rest with which the speed of other things could be compared.
But the genius of Einstein was not to fall victim to these accepted scientific dogma, but challenge them. And turn them on their heads. Although special relativity makes relative some quantities, such as time, that we would have imagined to be absolute based on everyday experience and Newtonian principae, it also makes absolute some others that we would have thought were relative. In particular, it states that the speed of light is the same for all observers, even if they are in motion relative to one another. Now the absolute was not space (distance) or time, but the absolute became the speed of light. By its very nature the speed of anything can be the same regardless of observer. Though the time and distance covered be different, the speed remains the very same, by stating that distance and time depend on the observer, and that time and space are perceived differently, depending on the observer.
Special relativity reveals that c is not just the velocity of a certain phenomenon -- light -- but rather a fundamental feature of the way space and time are tied together. In particular, special relativity states that it is impossible for any material object to travel as fast as light. Because as it travels at the speed of light...its mass compounds and the energy needed to speed it up will increase also. E=mc2, afterall. So, the energy that an object has due to motion will add to its mass...making it harder and harder to move it at the speed of light.
In my head, this possibly translates into ripples in the spacetime, caused by an enormous mass travelling at the speed of light, which in consequence would slow it down. Which means it would need more energy to continue on at the speed of light, which would further increase the mass...so on and so forth, ad infinitum.
What I want to know is why do objects gain mass as they speed up? Is this the kinetic energy model? Kinetic energy and relativistic mass.
"It is sometimes defined as a relativistic mass which increases as the velocity of a body increases. According to the geometric interpretation of special relativity, this is often deprecated and the term 'mass' is reserved to mean 'rest mass' and is thus independent of the inertial frame, i.e., invariant. Note also that the body does not actually become more massive in its proper frame, since the relativistic mass is only different for an observer in a different frame. The only mass that is frame independent is the invariant mass. When using the relativistic mass, the used reference frame should be specified if it isn't already obvious or implied. It also goes almost without saying that the increase in relativistic mass does not come from an increased number of atoms in the object. Instead, the relativistic mass of each atom and subatomic particle has increased."
The peculiarities noted before that tolled the death knell for Absolute time were:
Inertia and momentum - as an object's velocity gets close to the speed of light, it becomes more and more difficult to accelerate it.
Time dilation - the time lapse between two events is not invariant from one observer to another, but is dependent on the relative speeds of the observers' reference frames (e.g., the twin paradox which concerns a twin who flies off in a spaceship travelling near the speed of light and returns to discover that his twin has aged much more). Clocks seemed to slow down at speed approaching the speed of light.
Distance/Length shortens as objects approach the speed of light.
It is not a property of light...but a property associated with light...that defines the naure of the spacetime.
What I like and appreciate about the basic principles on which this based:
"A fundamental principle of all physics is the equivalence of inertial reference frames. In practical terms, this equivalence means that scientists living inside an enclosed box moving uniformly cannot detect their motion by any experiment done exclusively inside the box. By contrast, bodies are subject to so-called fictitious forces in non-inertial reference frames; that is, forces that result from the acceleration of the reference frame itself and not from any physical force acting on the body. Examples of fictitious forces are the centrifugal force and the Coriolis force in rotating reference frames. Therefore, scientists living inside a box that is being rotated or otherwise accelerated can measure their acceleration by observing the fictitious forces on bodies inside the box."
Ha. Much as scientists do science, from confined inertial frames, eh?
***
"Most happy and successful people at one time or another have considered suicide. They decided against it." It speaks truly thus.
"You are free to create and honor whatever past you choose, to heal and transform your present."
***
I think i want to put these down for posterity. Sometimes I forget the events that started it all.
When I am assailed with doubt I need to look back and say - yo, there it was!
Grant and Bike. Remember the phone call for the 4th of July 2006. Remember W. Many times and ONLY those times when you made sure that he HAD to be there. None of these were never when you had a doubt. Not even the niggling detail of a doubt.
Grant: many years...no money...seemed unlikely at all after 3 rejections that this time we'd get any leftover money. ViKtoria, the self-appointed person in charge of trivia, denies at the time that we were likely to get money. I am distraught. For 2 weeks I was horribly affected by the idea of more responsibilities than I could handle. Of wanting to leave...but having no out. I sat down, to pray. But having just finished the powerful book, I tried the 'blue feather' experiment, instead. I believed, then saw it happen. An atypically large "Accepted" on the noteface of the grant I had reviewed for her. Several weeks later...having clean forgotten about it...I remember her saying something unusual, like 'yeah go ahead, buy it". I am, ofcourse, astounded. That Friday, she sets up a party during lab meeting...none of us know going in but the second we are in, we KNOW. She gets the grant. We are thrilled to know it. A week passes by before I even REMEMBER the blue feather experiment. I reel for many minutes. On reconverse with ViKtoria, she says it seemed likely that the grant would get funded.
The second time I was in a fix was within the 2 weeks I was negating every positive energy in my path. When I was overwhelmed with the idea of a future year with no money. I was looking for transport...cheap and durable. A bike - seemed like the best recourse. I looked on Craigs, I missed several by a hair. Some of my friends let bikes go for cheap not realizing I was on the lookey loo. Well, as I searched aimlessly...I happened upon a dicey looking competition on Lipton's website - summat a bike for free in lieu of an essay on the idea of owning a bike. So i debated, became negative. Chided myself and told myself to repeat the blue feather experiment (this was before the first one had worked). So i saw it happening. and I wrote. and then I forgot all about it. I forgot SO cleanly about it that when the lady called, weeks later - I still didn't understand what she was talking about. Then I remembered about the competition. Hmm. I recieved the bike 3 weeks later. And 2 days after that was when I remembered the experiment. And its success.
The illusion exists so it can be broken. It can be broken if you are ready. It can be broken when you want to test it. To all others it will appear as a set of coincidences marvellously in your favor. But with you and you alone will the true meaning strike a chord.
Something I should remember for later...I am here to know. But I must understand that other people who are not ready to know will try to alienate me from my ideas if they so choose. And so vehemently will they believe what they believe becoz they must believe it that I am not likely to make any difference regardless. Only make them wary. Make them circumspect. Make them scared. Perhaps it was the intent. But I shall learn to better understand my tongue and what it speaks of, esp. who it speaks thus to.
***
What is the nature of space? What is it made of? Does the space time fabric extend in all directions? Which is a silly thing to ask...becoz the space is characterized in 3 dim. So therefore the fabric must extend in all 3D. It is represented as a trampoline which can be confusing sometimes as it appears to lie in one plane only.
***
I love how another dimension (besides the reg 3) can be described - think of a telephone wire. From a afar it appears to be 2D. Up close it has the characteristics of a 3D object. It has the qualities of forward and backward. Up and down. Left and right.
However, once ATOP the wire - say from the perspective of an ant that's on the wire...the metal wires are wrapped in a protective sheath. This sheath winds around the wire...forming the extra dimension...which is not linear or parallel or perpendicular to the first set of dimensis...but coiled around them - such that it has the characteristics of forward and backward...clockwise and anticlockwise. This dimension TWISTS around the first 3.
Like so:
Now were there more than the one dimension that WINDS around the other 3 that we are familiar with, what would they look like?The best description of it is below:
The so called 6 quantum dimensions( or 11 or 26 quantum dimensions) are wound around each other in a complicated manner which may give the 'strings' (the universe's underlying symphony), their characteristic vibrational energies, depending on how the strings are spatially arranged in the various dimensia.
Great reads on the idea follow below:
The Theory of Everything
Hawking vs Penrose
Einstein vs Bohr
The Elegant Universe
***
Something powerful just struck me down. I can't believe it took me that long to figure out what it was for. I have the gift of first time experiences.
What it's for: Depending on whether or not I can do something the first time I encounter it determines whether or not I should spend my time learning to do it.
Sometimes I suck at something and if I am forced to pursue it I become good at it, yes...but it usually is not as important as I deem it to be. In the long run. But other times..my first foray into a field is dazzling...which means that with VERY LITTLE effort I can use it to my advantage. Now that I know this...I can weed out the experiences I will learn peripherally from.
***
This is turning into my Dream Journal of sorts...which is not something I don't like.
Something about a dream with W wasn't sitting too well with me. Until I realized why not.
Last night, as the other nights before it, i dreamt of him. However, in the dream I cut him off midsentence and shifted to another dream entirely. Somehow in the middle of the dream - I went - 'Tuh, whatever' and boom! I'd moved on. The details are hazy. Of both before and after dreams.
I just remember not being happy with the sequence of events in the dream, when I awoke. Esp. how abrupt his leave was from me. I finally understand why it was that it bothered me so much. That instance in my dream is very much like the way his influence in my life was cut short. By me. i am not necessarily interested in seeing him right now, even though he bears heavy on my mind.
I don't want him to be an influence in my life, right now, for the distraction he causes me. And whence he is present in my life as a thing that causes anxiety it becomes something of a distraction - not something which I learn productively from. Which was the very reason he was there for anyway. So to learn what I need, I need to distance myself until the time is right. And when the time is right...it'll happen. Until then I have a lot of catching up to do.
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