Explorations of multidimensional space and time with linear and angular motion.
The Sun is like a clock. Sun and sundial (click for animation) Hours correspond to the Sun’s motion. 24-hour clock (for animation click here) This 24-hour clock is a representation of looking south. The sun rises on the left and sets on the right. At noon the sun and the clock appear straight up. […]
I’ve written about the inverse perspectives of travelers and shippers versus observers and scientists here. This post focuses on the language used, primarily the expectation of what motions larger or smaller values of measures correspond to. For an observer we’re accustomed to larger values corresponding to faster, more powerful motions. But travelers are usually trying
This post builds on the post Physics for travelers. Passengers are travelers or riders with a specific destination. In a way passengers are passive; they just sit as a vehicle takes them where they want to go. But that comes after they entered the vehicle, which comes after they accepted a ride or bought a
People have purpose and goals but natural science excludes final causes. People plan and design but natural science excludes formal causes. In that case call the science of formal and final (be)causes “hypernatural science”. These higher causes are not against nature (unlike supernatural) but are not inherent to nature (and so hypernatural). A physics for
Following the previous post on uniform motion, this post covers non-uniform motion in space and time. A simple way to get non-uniform motion is to join two uniform motions in different directions; the change in direction means the joint motion is non-uniform. Another way to get non-uniform motion is to accelerate at a constant rate.
Uniform linear motion is the motion of a body at a constant linear rate. Uniform circular motion is the motion of a body at a constant angular rate. In both of these cases the spatial extent of motion and the temporal extent of motion are in a constant proportion. Because of this constant proportion, from
There are two ways in which the length and the time (duration) of a motion are symmetric. The better-known way is the use of a conversion factor, notably the speed of light, which is the same for all inertial observers. All lengths can be turned into time intervals or all time intervals can be turned
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have a chapter on time (Chapter 10) in their book Philosophy in the Flesh (Basic Books, 1999) that makes several points: All of our understandings of time are relative to other concepts such as motion, space, and events. (p.137) Most of our understanding of time is a metaphorical version of
Expanding on a previous post here, this is a summary of the equations of motion for space-time and time-space. See also a pdf version in the Time-space Glossary option above. s = displacement magnitude, t = time magnitude, v = velocity, v0 = initial velocity, a = acceleration, w = lenticity, w0 = initial lenticity,
In a sense, every distance can be converted into a duration or vice versa: simply multiply duration by the modal speed or multiply the distance by the modal pace. For example, every time can be multiplied by the speed of light in a vacuum and so be replaced by a distance. This is usually done
