The first chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis 1, has attracted many commentators over the centuries. Recent scholarly work attempts to place it in the context of ancient Near East writings. (Near East is the European moniker for what Americans call the Middle East.) That however undervalues the unique, nuanced text of […]
Reichenbach and Grünbaum noted that “the relation of simultaneity within each inertial reference frame contains an ineradicable element of convention which reveals itself in our ability to select (within certain limits) the value to be assigned to the one-way speed of light in that inertial frame.” (John A. Winnie, “Special Relativity without One-Way Velocity Assumptions:
If we are blindfolded or are in a room with no light, we still have an awareness of where we are relative to our memory of where we were and our imagination of where we might be. We are always here in relation to there. That is our consciousness of space. Our consciousness of time
In recent post on Lorentz and dual Lorentz Transformations, I derived a complete set of Lorentzian transformations: The Lorentz transformation is speed: r′ = γ (r − vt) and t′ = γ (t – rv/c²), with γ = (1 – v²/c²)–1/2, or pace: r′ = γ (r – t/u) and t′ = γ (t –
A ruler is a measuring device with a fixed size. A ruler with a fixed length marked in standard linear units is a linear ruler. A linear ruler measures linear space, i.e., length or distance, which is the extent of an object or motion that is contiguous to a linear ruler. The units of linear
If we accept that the actual infinite does not exist except as an attribute of God, then the universe is finite. And if the universe is finite, then any use of the infinite or infinitesimal in physical science is a reference to an indefinite unknown or a manner of speaking, which at a greater level
I’ve written several related posts, such as one on the Complete Lorentz transformation. This post extends the previous post on the Galilean transformation to the Lorentz transformation, and what I’m now calling the dual Lorentz transformation, in order to show their similarities and differences. There are many expositions of a Lorentz transformation, such as here.
This is a topic I have addressed before, such as here. In this post I want to show some similarities and differences between the Galilean (Galileo) transformation and what I’m now calling the dual-Galilean transformation. There are many expositions of the Galilean transformation, such as here. It is standard to describe them in terms of
It is not well known that the Theory of Relativity is almost misnamed. Relativity was well known in physics since Galileo Galilei. That is, the relativity of space was well known. With Albert Einstein’s derivation of the Lorentz transform, the relativity of time was introduced. But the relativity of time was not of the same
As a generalist I tend to think of the big picture and push global conceptions, which can get speculative, but should provide insight in some way. There are many ways of slicing up history that show a pattern, but we crave meaning and so expect patterns. For example, it is helpful to adopt a rather
