Re: A mixture of time dilations and constrictions

[Stephen Speicher <sjs@COMPBIO.CALTECH.EDU>]

On Tue, 1 Jul 2003, Pentcho Valev wrote:

> Stephen Speicher wrote:
>
> > I do not know what you have been told on other lists, but special
> > relativity is a geometric theory with the notion of a point-like
> > event as a fundamental concept.  Clocks are idealized to be
> > present at any given event, not as an extended object but as a
> > point-like particle. One can deal with a clock as an extended
> > object in relativity, but such techniques are _vastly_ more
> > complex than standard analysis.
>
> Still let us try.

No, let us not. There is no point to complex analysis when there
is a lack of understanding and agreement of basic principles upon
which such an analysis is based.

> I would be grateful if you could stop hinting at my ignorance ...

I have not been "hinting" at anything. I have stated outright
that _before_ one can presume to be critical of relativity
theory, one must first learn about what one intends to criticize.
It has been my experience with others that, in almost all cases,
a proper education in the basics of the theory dispels the more
complicated "concerns" which they have.  There is nothing wrong
or shameful with ignorance per se, as long as one makes an effort
to replace that ignorance with knowledge. To that point I again
suggest Taylor and Wheeler's "Spacetime Physics" as an excellent
non-technical yet conceptual introduction to the theory.

--
Stephen
speicher@caltech.edu

Ignorance is just a placeholder for knowledge.

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