Apr 19 2017
Theta Module Five: This Crazy Universe Part II
Now let’s talk about light. Here is where things start to get strange. You can consider light to be a wave. Picture throwing a rock in a pond and you see the circular waves that expand from the spot the rock entered the water.
You can also consider the light to be a particle. Picture a stream of tiny pellets being shot from a BB gun.
Here comes the strange part.
The speed of light is constant it never changes.
Why is that strange?
Picture it this way.
When you are standing on the side of the road and you see a car pass you at 60 mph it seems to go a lot faster than if the car passes you on the road while you are driving another car at 55 mph. When you are standing on the road the car zooms by you at 60 mph when you are in another car driving at 55 mph the car only seems to be moving 5 mph relative to you.
Now if the car was a wave or particle of light you would not only see the car zoom by you at 60 mph when you were standing on the street but also zoom by you at 60 mph when you were driving at 55 mph.
So something had to give here. And it was Einstein who came up with the radical assumption that perhaps it was time. That just like uniform motion was relative to the observer so was time. And he was correct.
Now let’s bring the bus back. Imagine you are standing on the street watching the bus pass by. Two of your friends are standing in the middle of the bus. As the bus passes you by you see one friend throw a baseball to the front of the bus and one friend throw a baseball to the back of the bus at equal speeds. Since they are in the middle of the bus, as you would guess each baseball hits the front and back of the bus at the same time. This can be confirmed by your friends on the bus and you outside the bus.
Now let’s turn the baseballs into photons of light with a constant speed and throw the balls again. Since the baseball/photons have a constant speed your friends will see each baseball/photon hit the front and back of the bus at the same time. But what will you see?
When the thrown baseballs were actually baseballs and not photons of light their speed was increased if thrown in the direction of the moving bus and decreased if thrown against the direction of the moving bus. But now they are photons and remember photons don’t increase or increase their speed with a moving object. So while you friends on the bus will see the baseball/photons hit the front and back of the bus at the same time, you will see the baseball/photon hit the back of the bus first. The back of the bus is moving towards the baseball/photon. Later in time you will see the baseball/photon hit the front of the bus. It had to go a farther distance since the front of the bus was moving away from the baseball/photon.
But how can that be?
How can your friends on the bus see the baseball/photons hit the front and the back at the same time and you see the baseball/photons hit the back first and then the front?
Who is correct?
Are you ready?
Both you and your friends are correct!
How can you both be correct?
It all goes back to alluniform motion is relative. Both you and your friends are correct from your own perspectives. There is no privileged reference point.
Let what we have just discussed sink in. You will probably find yourself going back over the material to rationalize it again.
Always remember never try to force the Theta state of mind. You can’t. No more than you can force sleep. The harder you try the more impossible it will become.
Be sure to practice at least once a day. You will find it becoming easier and easier. And most of all have fun. Never let this become a discouraging process. Know that this is something you can do. This is something everyone can do. You are no exception.
Many amazing things are going to start happening in your life. Guaranteed!