- #1
OneEye
...And so, I was driving north from McPherson toward Salina, explaining Special Relativity to my wife and oldest daughter (and however many of the other children were actually listening). As I did so, I used our Suburban as an example, explaining how that, in the absence of any absolute coordinate system, there was no real way to tell whether the Suburban was moving over the road, or the road was moving under the Suburban.
About that time, we turned onto the highway - and I realized that, I had either used the steering wheel to turn the car in relation to the earth, or I had used the steering wheel to turn the Earth in relation to the car - and that, motion being purely relative, either could be as true as the other.
Now, here was a remarkable fact: Assuming the car to be at rest (which Special Relativity requires me to be able to do), it seems that I was actually able to change the orientation of the entire Earth simply by turning the steering wheel!
Now, that's power steering!
How does Special Relativity explain this curiousity?
About that time, we turned onto the highway - and I realized that, I had either used the steering wheel to turn the car in relation to the earth, or I had used the steering wheel to turn the Earth in relation to the car - and that, motion being purely relative, either could be as true as the other.
Now, here was a remarkable fact: Assuming the car to be at rest (which Special Relativity requires me to be able to do), it seems that I was actually able to change the orientation of the entire Earth simply by turning the steering wheel!
Now, that's power steering!
How does Special Relativity explain this curiousity?
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