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Re: lawless physics (fwd)



John wrote:
. . .
IMO it is highly misleading, the source of much
confusion, but still common to infer that relativity imposes a
speed limit on *us.* It does no such thing. If anything, it
teaches us to discard entirely the notion of "personal velocity."
We don't "travel" to a distant galaxy; it travels to us.
. . .
John
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A. John Mallinckrodt http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~ajm


John,
I'm afraid that in trying to dispel one mis-conception you may be
fostering another! There is definable only a RELATIVE velocity between
"us" and the galaxy; that is the whole point of relativity. You may do
proper physics by saying either one, or both are moving; all such
viewpoints are equivalent. Your words clearly forbid ascribing any
motion to "us", only to the galaxy. (I know what you mean, but your
words don't!)

Each morning as I commute 15 miles to Edinboro Univ I don't find it very
promising to think of the university traveling to me, so I fire up my
car!

We need to be reminded (as you are doing) that mis-interpretations are
possible no matter how carefully we word our statements; and further,
that in correcting the mis-interpretations which we discover we may be
inadvertently inviting misinterpretations of another kind!

-Bob

Bob Sciamanda sciamanda@edinboro.edu
Dept of Physics trebor@velocity.net
Edinboro Univ of PA http://www.edinboro.edu/~sciamanda/home.html
Edinboro, PA (814)838-7185