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Re: The world as a photon



On Wed, 5 Mar 2003, Chuck Britton wrote:

Is my memory failing me - or didn't Einstein himself talk about HIS
wondering what he would see if he could travel 'alongside' a light
beam.


Close, but not quite. Here are Einstein's own words on the famous
thought experiment which he devised when he was just sixteen
years old.

"How, then, could such a universal principle be found?
After ten years of reflection such a principle resulted
from a paradox upon which I had already hit at the age
of sixteen: If I pursue a beam of light with the
velocity c (velocity of light in a vacuum), I should
observe such a beam of light as a spatially oscillatory
electromagnetic field at rest. However, there seems to
be no such thing, whether on the basis of experience or
according to Maxwell's equations. From the very
beginning it appeared to me intuitively clear that,
judged from the standpoint of such an observer,
everything would have to happen according to the same
laws as for an observer who, relative to the earth, was
at rest. For how, otherwise, should the first observer
know, i.e., be able to determine, that he is in a state
of fast uniform motion?"

"One sees that in this paradox the germ of the special
relativity theory is already contained..."

-- Albert Einstein, "Autobiographical Notes" in "Albert
Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist," Ed. Paul Arthur
Schilpp, _Harper Torchbook_ (current edition - Open
Court Publishing Company).

--
Stephen
sjs@compbio.caltech.edu

Ignorance is just a placeholder for knowledge.

Printed using 100% recycled electrons.
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