Re: [ATM] FW: Sidewalk or Grass walk rookie observer's

["vladimir sacek" <vla@toast.net>]

Scott Ewart wrote:

>    It's all relative.  From our point of view, it did take 2 billion
> years to get here.  But if you're a photon traveling at the speed of
> light, time is slowed by time dilation to zero (if you believe
> Einstein).  Like I said, boggles the mind.

I wouldn't kill the time just yet. One needs to remember that both time
dilation and length contraction are reciprocal effects for two or more
inertial systems. In other words, it appears - or, more specifically -
measures, as longer, or shorter, from either system. At the speed of light,
neither can't be measured anymore, which is not the same as "doesn't exist".

Likewise, if the photon would belong to an inertial system moving toward us
at the speed of light, we would be also moving relative to it at the same
speed. If the time would die for the photon, it would also die for us,
relatively. The catch 22 is that we can't consider photons, nor any form of
light, as an inertial system in the sense it is defined by the special
relativity. The light speed is invariant (which is where the above
relativistic effects stem from).

Much of the paradoxical stuff comes from us not knowing what the world
really is and, instead, trying to construct working models that fit into our
perceived reality. That opens up the door for all kinds of weird theoretical
gizmos, including - with all due respect - the relativity.

Vlad 

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