mardi, janvier 17, 2006
a postcard
"You see, the existence of a natural speed limit for the motion of any object, or the sending of any signal, makes simultaneity in our ordinary sense of the word lose its meaning. Let me put it this way. Suppose you have a friend living in a far-away country with whom you correspond by air mail. Let's say it takes three days for a letter to make the journey. Something happens to you on Sunday and you learn that the same thing is going to happen to your friend. It is clear that you cannot let him know about it before Wednesday. On the other hand, if he knew in advance about the thing that was going to happen to you, the last date to let you know about it would have been the previous Thursday. Thus for three days beforehand your friend was not able to influence your fate on Sunday, nor for three days afterwards could he in turn be affected by what happened to you on that Sunday. From the point of view of casuality he was, so to speak, excommunicated from you."
New World of Mr Tompkins, The
George Gamow, Russel Stannard
Cambridge University Press, 2002
Pg 33
a postcard
too long to explain. i shall try to remember this day and the amusing peculiar intriguing fascinating thing that happened.
"You see, the existence of a natural speed limit for the motion of any object, or the sending of any signal, makes simultaneity in our ordinary sense of the word lose its meaning. Let me put it this way. Suppose you have a friend living in a far-away country with whom you correspond by air mail. Let's say it takes three days for a letter to make the journey. Something happens to you on Sunday and you learn that the same thing is going to happen to your friend. It is clear that you cannot let him know about it before Wednesday. On the other hand, if he knew in advance about the thing that was going to happen to you, the last date to let you know about it would have been the previous Thursday. Thus for three days beforehand your friend was not able to influence your fate on Sunday, nor for three days afterwards could he in turn be affected by what happened to you on that Sunday. From the point of view of casuality he was, so to speak, excommunicated from you."
New World of Mr Tompkins, The
George Gamow, Russel Stannard
Cambridge University Press, 2002
Pg 33
<< Home