Re: lawless physics (fwd)

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPomona.Edu>]

> I try to discuss the theory of relativity without invoking an
> invisible proscriptive force that refuses to allow anything to
> travel faster than the speed of light. I try to consistently
> present the idea that relativity is a theoretical model that
> encodes a history of observations of the behavior of light
> with a mathematical restriction on travelling faster than
> v=1. The math is not the reality or the enforcement of the
> reality, it is an encoding of a history of observation that
> has so far been consistent with further observation.

Having just finished teaching Special Relativity, I have a very different
take on this "proscription."  I try to make sure that students come away
from the course understanding the important fact that there is *no* limit
on "how fast" you can get from one place to another (which is all that can
possibly matter to a traveler) and, therefore, precious little meaning to
the notion that nature imposes any kind of "speed limit."  The fact that
no observer can *measure* a material object to be traveling faster than
the speed of light is a statement about *measurements* of space and time,
not about "how fast something can move."  And since one person's "faster
than light" is another person's "backward in time," all that nature is
really proscribing is acausality.

John
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