Superstition, Luck and Vodoo

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Originally posted by darkhorse

p.s. sorry to hear about the short thing (pun intended). I'm 6'2", good looking and hung like a rhino so I can't really relate :D

I knew that was coming ! :p
 
Originally posted by jaan
hmm... interesting question, but i'm not too well prepared to answer that. you see, as described by the theory of relativity, the passage of time is relative to the (speed of) observer. hence, there is no "universal time" that your question implies. of course, one can calculate all sorts of averages, but then things get too muddy for me to remain on top of the subject.

- jaan
Without getting into the mathematical particulars, the idea I have is that if a person existed near the beginning of time he would have a very high velocity. He would be like the man in the story who leaves on a journey at nearly the speed of light and returns a few weeks later to find that everyone he knows has died of old age. If his velocity was even higher, say ~0.9999999999C (+- a few nines) he could be gone only a day and return to find that 1,000,000 years had passed, so he could truthfully say "My journey took only a day" while the ancestors of the people he left could truthfully say "Your journey took 1,000,000 years, and here would be no contradiction, although some who didn't understand would not believe him.
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If a person travelling at 0.999999999C were somehow able to look at someone in a world travelling at 4000m/s it gets even more bizarre. It seems like the "fast" person would see "time flying by", civilizations rising and falling, mountains crumbling, and continents shifting before his eyes. Fun stuff to muddle over.
 
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Originally posted by darkhorse

p.s. sorry to hear about the short thing (pun intended). I'm 6'2", good looking and hung like a rhino so I can't really relate ____________________________________________________

Thanks for the visual...'cept I've never seen a rhino. Isn't the imagination a good thing?
 
Originally posted by Rigel

If a person travelling at 0.999999999C were somehow able to look at someone in a world travelling at 4000m/s it gets even more bizarre. It seems like the "fast" person would see "time flying by", civilizations rising and falling, mountains crumbling, and continents shifting before his eyes. Fun stuff to muddle over.

Not true. Each would see the same kind of thing, time wise, when looking at the other. In fact it's not even accurate to say one is at rest and the other is moving fast. All you can say is that one is moving relative to the other, or vice versa.
 
posted by Kymar:
"To me, the universe and life within it are already divine enough, and must exceed any particular, limited description."

______________________

God could only be, the very act of thought itself and consequently its own determinations.
 
Originally posted by Lavish

Thanks for the visual...'cept I've never seen a rhino. Isn't the imagination a good thing?



me neither lavish (at least not that up close and personal) :D

i actually am 6'2 though, and the wife sez i clean up real nice
 
Originally posted by stu

"To me, the universe and life within it are already divine enough, and must exceed any particular, limited description."

______________________

God could only be, the very act of thought itself and consequently its own determinations.



two eloquent statements of faith :)
 
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