Friday, October 26, 2018

Einstein's theory of relativity has some holes. The most basic innovation (right there in the title "relativity") from Newton's theory of gravity is that there is no innate way to show that an object has moved. The only way to show that an object has moved is by comparing the distance between it and another object. The way this is traditionally described is by saying that in Newton's law, space is absolute, whereas in Einstein's theory, space is relative (to the objects).
Einstein has a famous example of the rocket twins to show what can happen under his theory in terms of time and space. One twin is put on a rocket trip to somewhere at a fast pace and the other twin stays back on Earth. When the first twin returns, the two find that they have literally aged at a different pace. The theory behind why is basically that the faster you travel through space, the slower you travel through time, when compared to other objects traveling more slowly through space. But wait. Space is relative. So how do we know one twin traveled faster through space than the other? Is it by measuring the distance between the twins as each travels? No, because in an absolute space framework, we can easily see that this could be explained by one twin moving and the other staying still, or vice versa, or both twins moving apart from each other at equal speeds. So then do we know that one twin traveled faster than the other by measuring both twins' distances at time intervals from a third object, say Earth? No, because if one twin stays next to the Earth, and the other twin's distance increases from the Earth and the decreases, how do we know that the Earth and the sedentary twin aren't both moving away from the other twin and that the other twin isn't just staying in the same place? Or again, maybe the Earth and the sedentary twin pair as well as the other twin are moving apart from each other at equal speeds. So it seems there's no real way to say which twin is moving faster. So we are puzzled by one twin aging faster than the other, since we can't tell one twin is moving through space at a different rate.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Can a belief be held in complete isolation, without affecting other beliefs, our actions or our attitude? If it affects our