Relativity
January 14th, 2004
Whilst I was an undergraduate I never understood relativity. I could do most of the math, albeit badly, but it never really went any deeper than the symbols and a few ‘wow’ factor examples.
Then about three summers ago I was reading a book called The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene, and suddenly it clicked. For the first time, and immediately, I understood what was going on with the profoundly counter-intuitive effect of time dilation. I would have shouted out if I hadn’t been sitting in a cemetery in Richmond at the time, which was a convenient and also surprisingly relaxed and chilled place for me to eat my lunch.
Anyway, this is thinly relevant because today whilst we were travelling alongside another train I began thinking about how time dilation has affected me. My life has been lengthened minutely compared to, say, my brother because I travel a lot compared to him.
I then started trying to forumlate an explanation of why this is, and found I was unable to articulate the understanding that I thought I had. The metaphor that helped it click for me in the cemetary was still clear (it was all to do with marbles rolling along orthogonal axis), but now the argument just doesn’t seem to make sense. Damn.
Does this mean I no longer understand? Can I rely upon the fact that because I worked it out empirically last time, I could probably do so again - and hence reasonably claim understanding? More importantly, has time seemed to stretch out for you whilst reading this otherwise pointless post? Please let me know.