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Masses of the people on the future of learning, from the cradle that time and space are relative, and because we know that our ancestors came from the cradle are absolute Call for a scientific and realistic inadvertently revealed a paradox, it is still difficult to novels, for us.

 

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Truth is a Paradox Yet

 

 

The Classical description of nature was based on the belief that time and space are absolute. That meant that there was a single Clock for the whole Universe beating the same time for all observers — the same time for everybody!

 

Similarly, the absolute character of space meant that there was a single standard of length in the Universe applicable to all distances on all scales.

 

This unchangeablity — complete independence! — of the running of the clock measuring time, and of the length of the rulers measuring space would seem beyond question and not subject to any discussion. An unsophisticated person even now would ask, and how could it be otherwise?

 

There is a well known and often repeated fantastic story about the ‘Einstein twins’: one of them goes on a space voyage at a velocity close to that of light and after two years returns to Earth, where he is met by his twin who in the meantime has aged by 20 years. Neither of them are surprised since when they parted they knew that the time in the spaceship is slower by a factor of ten because its velocity is so much greater than the velocity of the Earth. And if the spaceship had a velocity even closer to that of light the twin in it would travel an even shorter time (say a year or a month) according to this clock. But his twin left on the Earth would still live the same twenty terrestrial years during this short interval.

 

This story, which could well be realized in the future, is fantastic only because humanity so far cannot build spaceships travelling at velocities close to that of light. In all other respects, it is quite true. Even that both twins, the young one and the older one, will not be surprised is also true.

 

The people of the future will learn from the cradle that time and space are relative, as we and our ancestors knew from the cradle that both were absolute.  Just think: this familiar story of the twins is still known as the ‘clock paradox’, while paradox means some statement incompatible with the current understanding of things. Calling a scientific truth a paradox inadvertently reveals that it is still too novel for us.

 

The Relativity theory retains a flavor of this novelty, though the ‘boy from Ulm’ is long dead and the laws of nature he uncovered are daily put to practical  — and very efficient — use in particle accelerators, nuclear reactors and many other apparatuses. Where then is the novelty? It would be better to talk about the ‘outdatedness’ of our mentality which is difficult to eliminate and which feeds all our beliefs and prejudices.   

 

 

 

 

— Daniel Danin, Probabilities of the Quantum World

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indexes/06

 

 

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1 comments:

Sprit O said...

Relativistic retains the original flavor, this novelty, but the 'little boy Ulm team,' and it is a long-term death and the laws of nature, he found that daily practice - very efficient -

O truth of the earth,
O truth of things,
I am determined to press my way toward you;
Sound your voice!

I scale mountains,
or dive in the sea after you.

Walt Whitman
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