🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mar 22, 2:08 am, Pentcho Valev <pva...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> http://en.allexperts.com/q/Astrophysics-3368/2009/3/Speed-light-relat...
> "QUESTION: I understand some basic physics, and I understand the math
> behind it, but one question puzzles me conceptually. Say two objects
> are moving at, say, 3/4 the speed of light moving towards each other.
> How can I conceptually reconcile what is really going on there? That
> is to say, the two object will really only be going at max the speed
> of light relative to the other, but this seemingly makes no sense
> conceptually, whereas it does make sense mathematically.
> ANSWER (Expert Philip A. Stahl, 3/5/2009): Hello, Actually, the two
> objects of which you speak would not even achieve c as their maximum,
> but only 0.96 c. According to the appropriate relative velocities
> equation. Conceptually, it is extremely difficult to understand how
> this can be because OUR BRAINS ARE CONDITIONED TO THINK IN TERMS OF
> NORMAL RELATIVE VELOCITIES. Say like two cars approaching each other
> at 50 mph for which the relative velocity of either wrt the other is
> then the simple addition of speeds, or 100 mph. The trick in terms of
> relativity is the fact that c represents a fundamental limit on cosmic
> speeds, not just another everyday quantity."
>
> In the same way, in Big Brother's world, brains are conditioned to
> think in terms of normal arithmetic where 2+2=4 but the trick in terms
> of Big Brother's science is the fact that 2+2=5 represents The
> Fundamental Truth, not just another everyday (mistaken) calculation:

No, no, no. No one is asking you to believe that 2 apples + 2 apples =
5 apples.
What people are asking you to consider is that simple addition is not
the way that velocities combine. This we know from experimental
evidence.
In the face of experimental evidence, even the most fundamental
intuitions about what we think *should* be the case must crumble.
And it's a childish snit to then whine that if velocities don't
combine by simple addition, then NOTHING can combine by simple
addition.

>
> http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
> George Orwell "1984": "In the end the Party would announce that two
> and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable
> that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their
> position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the
> very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their
> philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was
> terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise,
> but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two
> and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the
> past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist
> only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?"
>
> Pentcho Valev
> pva...@yahoo.com