Time

Just to shake things up a bit I resurrected this from a post I made in 2003. I cleaned it up some as there was no spell checker then, otherwise left it the same.


So, I'm reading a book called "The Elegant Universe" a Pulitzer Prize contender about Relativity, Quantum and String Theory.

Since we always seem to get stuck in discussions about time and cause and effect let me see if I can summarize a small part of the book which is explaining how time is not a fixed, linear thing which occurs always and everywhere the same. (Hence what caused what when? Or how did it all start?)

Imagine you are in a spaceship alone in the universe. Nothing else exists.
If this is the case you would not be able to know if you are moving or not as you have nothing to reference to.
In the distance you see another spaceship approaching at a constant velocity. It comes along side, and passes by disappearing in the distance.

It is moving, you are not.

Now jump to the other ship where I am sitting. I am alone in the universe and can not tell if I am moving. Along comes your ship and passes me by.

Which one of us is moving?

You can not tell, it works either way. One ship thinks the other is moving, the other ship thinks the same thing. Either could be true.

Now, place a clock on both ships and increase the speed of one of them to near the speed of light. Einstein's Special Law of Relativity tells us that the moving ship will experience time at a slower rate then the non-moving ship. (Which I'm not going to explain right now)

So, now as I pass you, you "see" that I am living slower then you are. You will die before I do as my metabolism et al has been slowed due to my traveling near the speed of light relative to you. You die first, then me.

But remember, in my ship I see you approaching me! To me, it is you that is moving near the speed of light, and I am stationary. So I "see" you living slower than me! I will die first, before you!

Who dies first?

Make any sense????
__________________
"Still here."

 

The point is, time is a relative concept, not an absolute.
That means the concept of cause and effect is also relative, not absolute.
Which means that causes can become effects, and the same effect can become a cause, depending on your physical point of view.

Which is very interesting.

 

Why would we assume that space or time are the cause of anything?
If something is caused, it is caused by something else, somewhere (space), at some time. Space and time didn't cause it.

Time would, IMO, be the same for everyone traveling at the same speed. In our world, we are all traveling at about the same speed so we experience time the same and so also share a common past and future.

Although there has been an experiment with atomic clocks traveling very fast at high altitudes that have proved the relativity of time.

 

I'll get back, things to do right now.

 

All right, I have to think about this....and I'm too tired right now. Just let me say quickly that the point I was making is that time is not the same everywhere if different rates of speed and or gravitation fields are taken into account.

Time is dependent on the observer and the observer's rate of speed..

As far as cause and effect. You can not have an effect without a cause and you can not have a cause without an effect.

Then I stuck myself in a big mess and said that effects can proceed causes. I have to think that one out some more. I know I read that it can occur at quantum levels, but I have to research that and then figure out how it could apply to macro levels.

 

There was a young lady named bright,
Who traveled much faster than light.
She started one day
In the relative way,
And returned on the previous night. –Arthur Buller

Okay I think I have it.
I was trying to express the relativity of simultaneity. Although I didn’t know what it was called.

Now, observe the animation below. Simply put, we have three stationary observers shown as the Blue, Grey, and Yellow spheres; equally spaced apart at a vast distance. We are also observing all three from a vast distance. A Red and Green light are turned on, at an equal distance from the Yellow observer.




As the Red and Green light travels outward, notice when the Red and Green line meters show that the Blue and Grey observers see each respective light.

The Yellow observer sees both lights simultaneously, the Blue sees the Red first, and the Grey sees the Green first.
The order has been reversed for the Blue and Grey observer.


And yes The Beatles were showing the relativistic time in that dual submarine sequence.