Re: importance of Being Earnest

[Brian Whatcott <betwys1@SBCGLOBAL.NET>]

I place a stick in a beaker of water.
It is most peculiar: there is a distinct angle between the
stick above and below the surface of the water.

Right before I pull the stick out, I see that it is pointing in two
different directions. But the stick is straight.

This is a most disturbing paradox.
Talking about paradoxical observer effects of this kind
is a dire symptom of the sick state of physics theory.

...or maybe not

Brian Whatcott


At 04:27 AM 10/26/2004, you wrote:
> Another textbook example known as "Seeing behind the stick":
>
> "A ruler is fixed perpendicular to a wall. A stick of length L fies by at
> constant speed. It travels in front of the ruler, so that it obscures part
> of the ruler from your view. When the stick hits the wall it stops.
>      In your reference frame, the stick is shorter than L. Therefore, right
> before it hits the wall, you will be able to see a mark on the ruler which
> is less than L units from the wall."
>
> How will one (in the ruler's frame) see the mark? Obviously the mark must
> emit light which is then captured by the eye of the observer. But then one
> may consider the situation in which, apart from light, the mark emits a pawl
> preventing the back end of the stick to move in the opposite (with respect
> to the initial movement) direction. So, according to the observer in the
> ruler's frame, the stick will remain "caught" between the wall and the pawl
> as a result of its length contraction and at the same time cannot remain
> "caught" since its length contraction must disappear after joining the
> ruler's frame. Typical reductio ad absurdum which would be fatal for any
> scientific theory. Not for relativity of course since it is a religion, not
> a theory.
>
> Pentcho Valev