tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 11 05:06:26 1998

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Re: {'evnagh} (was Re: KLBC: logh veQ)

From: William H. Martin <[email protected]>

>According to Alan Anderson:

>pe'vIl maQoch. bImujbej. "space-time" DellaHbe' Quv. 'ay'Hom
>machqu' 'oH Quv. poH qelbe'.

Hoch 'u' Daq "poH" je ngu'laH Quv.  (Whatever the appropriate word for "time
coordinate" is.

>> vIHlu' 'e' Delbe'.
>> wanI' ngu' "space-time" Quv.
>
>*Relativity* Dayajbe'bej.

*Relativity* le' vIyajbej jIH.  vIHaDchu'pu'.

>> Motion is not the important attribute of space-time.  Location in
>> both space (physical coordinates) and time (what a clock reads) is
>> what space-time is all about.  As soon as you start talking about
>> motion, you have separated space and time.

Oh, boy.  Way-Off-Topic'sville.  Well,

>No. Motion is what connects space and time. Using the speed of
>light as an arbitrary constant, you can measure distance in
>terms of time and you can measure time in terms of distance.
>Without motion, you cannot connect the math that measures
>location with the math that measures duration.

Sure you can.  Just plug in V=0 and you get t=t'  (in other words, if two
objects share the same frame of reference, Newtonian mechanics works
exactly.

>We can digitalize all our measurements, but the universe will
>remain analog, contiguous and moving.

This statement is dubious in the realm of physics.  There is quite a bit of
evidence to support the idea that there is a minimum unit of space, and a
minimum unit of time.

>The world is not made by smearing together discrete instants.
>There are no discrete instants. There is only motion.

Of course, quantum mechanics paints a very different picture.

I think I'll just leave it at these useless and smug hints.  This really
doesn't belong on the list.  I could derive Special Relativity in private
e-mail for anyone who's interested.  All it takes is some algebra and two
very believable assumptions about the universe.  No calculus (well, not for
the basic stuff).  I just hope my ASCII art is up to the challenge of
drawing diagrams.

SuStel
Stardate 98113.3

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