Recent content by pLatOscLoSET

I attached an image... I guess it is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but the Earth definitely appears to me to travel a greater distance in an equal amount of time.

I thought the the world line of the Earth is helical in spacetime... if that is so then wouldn't that contradict the statement quoted above?

How do we know that?

I know that the Earth orbits the sun at roughly 18.5 miles/sec and the sun orbits the milky way at around 137 miles/sec. How do I calculate Earth's speed as it coils around the milky way?

Why not... actually I should say how so?

I know that physics has developed to consider time as just another dimension... but can't you tell what time of year it is by observing/measuring positions of stars in the night sky?

Do the positions of stars determine our position in time, or does our position in time determine the positions of stars?

Hi matheinste, I agree... the point of emission would... but not the place of emmission(source)

Thanks for all your detailed responses. My last point was not as clear as I would have liked it to be, so let me restate it. There is going to be some need for translation on your parts so bear with me and see if you make out what I'm trying to say. So from the embankments frame, nothing is...

So up to this point we have considered everything with reference to our embankment. Our embankment observer is at rest, our track is at rest, our lightning strokes are at rest, everything is at rest except for the train, basically the world is at rest and the train is in motion. So knowing that...

So it seems we will definitely disagree as to the correct interpretation of the thought experiment. That's fine, but to not let this dissolve into a war of words, I am going to draw some logical conclusions from your initial calculations. Before I begin let us assume that that places A &...

What is the point then of referring to a particular frame of reference for a judgment to be made? Of course they are simultaneous. The whole point of the experiment is to demonstrate that the experience of simultaneity is dependent on the observers state of motion with respect to those events...

Sure... here's the link again: http://books.google.com/books?id=gQ8LAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=einstein&ei=tondSZLWOpnGywTa_pHyDg#PPA31,M1 Chapter 9, page 31 and I quote: "Just when the flashes(as judged from the embankment) of lightning occur, this point M' naturally occurs with point M...

First, let me thank you for your response. I have a few points of contention, but allow me to make only one in this post. If you refer back to the text, Einstein makes it very clear that when m and m' naturally coincide the judgment, in regards to the flashes of lightning occurring, is...

Here is a link to the text, chapter 9... page 30: http://books.google.com/books?id=gQ8LAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=einstein&ei=tondSZLWOpnGywTa_pHyDg#PPA30,M1 So I have been analyzing this thought experiment from a causal perspective and have found it to be quite unsatisfactory. The...