Einstein shakes my world

One of the topics in my college freshman physics class was Special Relativity. The first step of special relativity is to assume that the speed of light, c, is constant in all frames of reference. Sounds innocuous enough.  But hang on – I’ve passed other cars on the highway, and I wasn’t moving 60 mph relative to them! Just what is the preposterous postulate?  Gedanken experiment, indeed! 

But, as a lowly freshman, it was not my job to question Einstein. My job was to get an A. So I dutifully did problem sets, drew cartoons of lanterns on trains and train platforms, of twins on planets and spaceships, derived the equations for time dilation and length contraction. Grumbling and chuckling the whole time about the absurdity of the entire exercise.

As we tapered into finals week, the professor took a breather from lecturing by showing us a film. This was one of those 1950s era educational films, with Brylcreamed, horned-rimmed white guys sporting lab coats and pocket protectors. The experiment focused on space particles with half-lives too short, even near light speed, to reach the detectors on earth. And yet they pinged the detector due to…time dilation???

The lights came up, the film threaded off its reel. I couldn’t move. Sucker punched, I sat in the center of the large raked lecture hall as the other students filed out to lunch. I muttered over and over to myself, volume swelling with my agitation and frustration, “You mean it’s TRUE? Are you KIDDING me?”

That is not exactly what I said. I try to reserve use of the F-word for special occasions. This was one such occasion.

(c) Carol VanZoeren 2023

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