I’ve posted a video series on 3D time (duration) online on Youtube. See the playlist 3D Time here: It’s also on Vimeo here. 3D Time: From Transportation to Physics Presentations: Introduction Part 1: Show Me Part 2: Objections Part 3: Kinematics I Part 4: Kinematics II Part 5: Dynamics Part 6: Orbits Part 7: Relativity […]
Impossible objects such as the Necker cube above are drawings that appear as two different objects, in this case either a box standing out toward the lower left or toward the upper right. It can be seen as one or the other but not both simultaneously. 3D space and 3D time are like this. One
Nowadays, we say that the speed of information is the speed of light. That is justified by the rôle of the speed of light in relativity, in which it is the speed of causation. But it is also justified by the use of electromagnetic waves to transmit information between people. It was not always so.
If a stone rolls down a hill, we would say it is simply following the law of gravitation. It is not “going somewhere” as if it had a destination – that would require nature to have a soul, a view that died out in the early modern period. But if a person or an animal or
A clock provides a linear reference to measure duration of motion. Similarly, there is a linear reference to measure length of movement. What is this linear reference? In mapping and geographic information systems (GIS) a linear referencing system (LRS) “is a method of spatial referencing, in which the locations of features are described in terms of
The various ways of measuring space and time are parallel. Measuring space: A ruler measures length, that is, the distance between two points (A to B). An ruler turned upside-down measures length backwards (B to A). A tripmeter measures the travel distance of a vehicle trip. An odometer measures the cumulative travel distance. A measuring
The English words motion and movement are similar. They both have to do with “changing position or going from one place to another.” (Collins English Dictionary) Then what’s the difference? Here are a few ways of putting it: motion is used to describe physical properties, while movement is used to describe the qualities of motion. Ref.
For some background, see here and here. Velocity is defined as: “The time rate of change of position of a body; it is a vector quantity having direction as well as magnitude.” Speed is defined as: “The time rate of change of position of a body without regard to direction; in other words, the magnitude
This post follows others such as the one here and here. A background document is here. One-dimensional kinematics is like traveling in a vehicle, and on the dashboard are three instruments: (1) a clock, (2) an odometer, and (3) a speedometer. In principle the speedometer reading can be determined from the other instruments, so let’s
Let us distinguish between observer-receivers and traveler-transmitters. Although observers can travel and travelers can observe, insofar as one is observing, one is not traveling, and insofar as one is traveling, one is not observing. The main difference is this: traveler-transmitters have a destination but observer-receivers do not (or at least not as observers). Compare the
