Amazon.com: Books: How the Universe Got Its Spots : Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space
Amazon.com: Books: How the Universe Got Its Spots : Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space
Wow. I've actually started to understand the theories of relativity by Einstein. Previously I never understood the connection between the different results from the theories (mainly because I've never actually read a good explenation). But yesterday I bought the book "How the universe got its spots" by Jenna Levin, where she explains it nicely.
Everything but the speed of light is relative. Sure, I have heard that a million times, but not until now I truly see the consequences of this amazing fact. The speed of light is the only constant in the whole creation, and everything else bends to this fact. The speed of light is approx. 300 000 km per second. Always. If I get in a spaceship and travel away from the sun at say 10 000 km/s then one instinctively feels that I would compensate a bit for the speed of the light from the sun, thus measuring it at 290 000 km/s outside my vessel. But no, it is still 300 000 km/s. What happens is that space-time bends around the constant of the speed of light. When the speed of light can not be relative, then space-time must be. This is why space-time is different at different speeds, to compensate so that the speed of light remains the same for everyone at any speed. And this is also why nothing can go faster than the speed of light - if everything else bends to fit the speed of light, then you can never ever go faster.
Finally I have also grasped how and why gravity fits in to this. Nothing can ever go faster than the speed of light, which means that nothing can ever instantaneously affect something at a distance - not even gravity. This means that the sun should not be able to affect the earth from a distance. And it doesn't. The sun distorts space-time, which bends around it, and the earth simply rolls around on the distorted space-time lines around the sun. Somehow it makes sense, I think. I hope I haven't missunderstood it all, and just making a fool of myself.... :-)
Wow. I've actually started to understand the theories of relativity by Einstein. Previously I never understood the connection between the different results from the theories (mainly because I've never actually read a good explenation). But yesterday I bought the book "How the universe got its spots" by Jenna Levin, where she explains it nicely.
Everything but the speed of light is relative. Sure, I have heard that a million times, but not until now I truly see the consequences of this amazing fact. The speed of light is the only constant in the whole creation, and everything else bends to this fact. The speed of light is approx. 300 000 km per second. Always. If I get in a spaceship and travel away from the sun at say 10 000 km/s then one instinctively feels that I would compensate a bit for the speed of the light from the sun, thus measuring it at 290 000 km/s outside my vessel. But no, it is still 300 000 km/s. What happens is that space-time bends around the constant of the speed of light. When the speed of light can not be relative, then space-time must be. This is why space-time is different at different speeds, to compensate so that the speed of light remains the same for everyone at any speed. And this is also why nothing can go faster than the speed of light - if everything else bends to fit the speed of light, then you can never ever go faster.
Finally I have also grasped how and why gravity fits in to this. Nothing can ever go faster than the speed of light, which means that nothing can ever instantaneously affect something at a distance - not even gravity. This means that the sun should not be able to affect the earth from a distance. And it doesn't. The sun distorts space-time, which bends around it, and the earth simply rolls around on the distorted space-time lines around the sun. Somehow it makes sense, I think. I hope I haven't missunderstood it all, and just making a fool of myself.... :-)
posted by Niklas at 23:17
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