To the Moon, Alice? Or beyond? #8

by Whabby

In the third (and final) version of our thought experiment, we’re going to add a few “dilithium” crystals to Shirley’s engines so she can crank her speed up to exactly 299,999 kilometers per second, just one kilometer below the speed of light. By now, you’re familiar with the drill. At the exact instant Shirley passes over you, as you lie motionless on the ground, George will flick his searchlight on and off. Both you and George will measure the time for the light pulse to travel up and down Shirley’s shaft. You’ll record your times, and repeat the exercise over and over, until you both get a stable average. Luckily, your stopwatches are smart, so they help by automatically subtracting your brain processing time, and in addition, your stopwatch automatically subtracts the time for the pulse to travel from Shirley’s transparent floor back to your eyes.

Last week, when Shirley was going “only” 150,000 kilometers a second, your stopwatch registered about three tenths of a second more for the light pulse to complete its journey than George’s. Today, with Shirley moving almost twice as fast (and as some owls guessed last week), a perfectly reasonable conjecture would be that the delay is going to be about twice as big, or just over 0.6 seconds. Consequently, when you and George start the first measurement, you go in still expecting to see the light pulse only a little later than he does.

But, that doesn’t happen! You don’t see the flash after 2.6 seconds. You don’t see it after twenty-six seconds. You don’t even see it after two hundred and fifty seconds! As the time keeps mounting, you start to panic, worried that you’ve somehow missed the flash and spoiled the experiment. Just as you’re ready to call the whole thing quits, lo and behold, you finally do see it! Breathlessly, you look down at the time as measured on your stopwatch, and see seven hundred and seventy-five seconds have passed. Almost 13 minutes!

13 minutes? For the first time since you started this whole crazy time measurement gig, you have serious trouble believing the outcome of your own experiment. How can a two second event take 13 minutes? Your sense of disbelief persists as you and George perform the measurement again and again, only to confirm: two seconds for him; hundreds of seconds for you.

To make sense of this result, we have to go back to – where else – Pythagoras. In the one second it takes the light flash to go from the searchlight to Shirley’s mirrored ceiling, in George’s world, Shirley has been racing away along a line stretching off to your right at 299,999 kilometers per second. Geometrically, after one second Shirley’s movement has created a Line B that’s 299,999 kilometers long. Eager to find out how much distance 299,999 kilometers adds to the length of the all-important Line A, the line that traces out the path the light pulse takes from your perspective, you frantically crunch through the familiar Pythagorean calculations. I’ll spare you the numerical details: Line A turns out to be 424,263 kilometers long (a full 124,263 kilometers longer than Line C, which is the path the light pulse takes for George). The resulting triangle is shown below.

After one second of George’s time, his light pulse has reached the ceiling, and is about to start the journey back. After one second of your time, the light pulse has also covered 300,000 kilometers (light travels at the same speed for everybody), but since it has to travel up the diagonal of the right-angle triangle, it has 124,263 extra kilometers to go before it reaches the ceiling.

That’s a lot of extra distance, owls. It’s about 10 times the diameter of the Earth. Even traveling at 300,000 kilometers per second, 124,263 kilometers is going to take the pulse a little less than half a second - 0 .414 seconds to be exact - to traverse. In 0.414 seconds, though, Shirley, zipping along at a constant 299,999 kilometers per second, extends Line B by an additional 124,262 kilometers (0.414 times 299,999). By the Pythagorean theorem, that, in turn, lengthens Line A by a further 95,000 kilometers or so.

Just like in last week’s example, successive cycles of space/time creation have commenced. The extra time needed for your light pulse to cover that additional 95,000 kilometers is about 0.317 seconds. But in 0.317 seconds, Shirley moves 80,000 kilometers further away. And, of course, the same movement is happening while the light pulse is traveling back down Shirley’s shaft, stretching Line B for the mirror-image triangle by the same amount. These numbers are big, so it’s already clear that the time you measure for the light flash to reach Shirley’s floor will be larger - quite a bit larger – than last week, when Shirley was traveling at half the speed of light. Still, just like last week, these numbers are shrinking rapidly. You would be forgiven for thinking that the cycles would quickly shrink to insignificance.

But you’d be wrong! As the cycles start to pile on, an important aspect of the geometry of the situation rears its ugly head and starts to exert an increasing influence. To understand this, we need to revisit Pythagoras’ theorem (sorry, owls):

According to the theorem, to get the length of Line A, you first square the lengths of Lines B and C. Then, you add the squared values together. Finally, you take the square root of that sum. Remember the blog where Shirley was moving only one kilometer per second? And we talked about the fact that squaring the lengths of Lines B and C and then adding them together inflates any initial difference in their size? When the lengths of Lines B and C are very discrepant, with one relatively long and the other relatively short, squaring the numbers ensures that the length of Line A is almost completely controlled by the length of the longer side.



A useful way of stating this relation in the context of our current triangle is: The greater the discrepancy between the lengths of Lines B and C, the greater the proportion of the length of the longer side gets “donated “ to line A.

We encountered this situation when Shirley was moving only one kilometer per second (slow, relative to the speed of light, that is) in Blog Five, making Line C vastly longer than Line B. You can see this in the figure above: with Line C so much more in control of the length of Line A than Line B, Line A was virtually the same length as Line C. This time around, with Shirley moving at 299,999 kilometers per second, Line B is almost equal in length to Line C after just one second. Therefore, the amount that Line B and Line C contribute to the length of A is now virtually equal (for those who care, Line C supplies just a tiny trifle more than 71% of its length, Line B just a tiny trifle less).

In just the first cycle of time/space creation, though, we’ve seen that Line B increased by 124,262 kilometers, making Line B quite a bit longer than Line C. As the space/time creation cycles pile on, Line B grows ever longer, while Line C (of course) stays the same. Consequently, Line B begins to donate a larger and larger proportion of its overall length to Line A, and that means it donates a larger and larger proportion of the portion of its length that was just added in the latest cycle. The top triangle of the three triangles in the figure below shows what’s happened by the 20^th cycle of space/time creation, close to the number of cycles that completely “closed things out” when Shirley traveled at 150,000 kilometers per second. This time around, Shirley has moved almost 1.5 million kilometers away, making Line B almost five times as long as Line C. In the very next (21^st) cycle, illustrated in the middle triangle of the figure, Shirley moves an additional 30,941 kilometers down the line. Crucially, with the big (and growing) imbalance between the lengths of Line B and Line C, most of that additional length is donated to Line A. In fact, Line A lengthens by about 30,303 kilometers, only a fraction less than the latest increase in Line B.

It takes just slightly more than a tenth of a second for the light flash to cover the extra 30,000 or so kilometers along A. In that amount of time, though, Shirley moves another 29,999 or so kilometers away, and donates almost all of that extra length to Line A. As these iterations of space/time creation continue to mount, and Line B grows ever longer compared to Line C, the proportion of the additional length on Line B that’s donated to A grows every larger, until they’re almost identical. This situation is illustrated in the bottom triangle of the figure with the large number of evenly spaced light pulses through the midsection. Eventually, things almost reach equilibrium, where on each cycle, almost as much new distance is added to Line A as was added on the immediately previous cycle. As a result, the light pulse makes very little headway on its journey toward the top of the triangle (Shirley’s mirrored ceiling), or (after one second of George’s time) back down to the floor.

Luckily for your patience, though, the amount of Line B that gets donated to Line A never - quite - reaches the point of complete balance. On every successive cycle, the temporal window of opportunity for Shirley to move further down the line grows just a little smaller, and the old girl covers just slightly less extra distance compared to the cycle before.

Eventually, the cycle IS choked off, and the light pulse DOES reach naked (and, don’t worry, still fully erect) George. As shown by the pile-up of light pulses to the right side of the triangle, though, it takes many, many, many extra cycles for that to happen. The distances along the sides say it all: by the time the pulse reaches the ceiling, Line B has stretched to over 116 million kilometers. By the time the pulse reaches the floor, Shirley has covered a total of about 232 million kilometers, putting her well on her way to Jupiter! Compared to that colossal distance, the length of line C, which remains fixed at 300,000 kilometers, has become a trivial pittance. This is why the shape of the triangle is so squashed, and Line A is now almost identical in length to Line B (of course, the true triangle is a great deal more squashed than this figure can do justice).

Let’s pause and take stock. We have exactly the opposite of the situation in Blog Five, when the spacecraft was traveling at only one kilometer per second, and it was Line B that was insignificant compared to Line C. See why time dilation is magnified by such a colossal extent when the spacecraft gets very close to the speed of light? Line B has an opportunity to get so long compared to C that virtually all of the length of Line B is donated to A; thus, as Line B grows, so grows Line A, creating ever more distance for your version of the light flash to cover. And, of course, light always takes time to cover distance.

With this description, we’ve virtually finished the quest to understand the time in time dilation! The key to the entire story lies in how quickly the spacecraft is traveling, and how quickly the light pulse can reach the floor of the spacecraft. If the pulse can do so in a relatively small number of extra cycles of space/time creation, Line C will always win the competition with Line B for who donates the bigger proportion of their length to Line A, and things don’t get too out of hand. If, however, Shirley is moving fast enough, Line B wins the “who donates the most to Line A” sweepstakes, and the time/space creaction cycles acquire a life of their own.

There are only a few loose ends to tie up, now. One of those ends is really nifty, however, so I’m going to leave you today with a teaser to it. We’ve seen that when Shirley travels at very close to light speed, she covers over 230 million kilometers before the light pulse returns to her floor. Of course, that distance puts her way out there in outer space: in the context of our solar system, 230 million kilometers away is a location well inside the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter.

Meanwhile, what distance would the odometer onboard Shirley herself read when the pulse reaches the floor? 599,998 kilometers, of course: Her speed, 299,999 kilometers per second, multiplied by the two seconds of elapsed time that it takes for George. That is only about one and a half times the distance to the Moon; it’s many millions of kilometers short of Mars, let alone the asteroid belt. So. At the exact point in time when the light pulse returns to the spacecraft floor, time dilation appears to have created an enormous discrepancy between where Shirley is in George’s world, and where she is in yours’.

This discrepancy raises a major conundrum. Since, from your perspective, Shirley travels all the way into the asteroid belt, it is entirely possible (though unlikely) that an asteroid lies somewhere along her path, and Shirley actually hits the asteroid in a high-speed collision that immediately pulverizes her, and poor erect George, into dust. If that happened, you’d obviously never see the light pulse, because there’d be no glass floor around to reflect it back to you. You wouldn’t care much about that, because you’d be mourning the loss of George and his equipment (I was talking about his searchlight and stop watch). But from George’s perspective, Shirley doesn’t travel nearly far enough to enter the asteroid belt. The hide-speed collision never takes place, the light pulse reaches the floor with no problem, and George lives to record the time of that event.

Can exactly the same event have two such different histories? How can George (and his marvelous erection) both live and die? How can Shirley get pulverized and not get pulverized? Speculate on how to resolve this paradox in today’s comment section! Or, if you like, just sit tight and wait until next week for the (in my humble opinion) mind-boggling answer!

One step, Two Steps, OUCH!

"Pele' just try it, and I will smash your toe"

There are days, that we awake and just figure our day will be as normal as the one before or perhaps the one after. We go about our daily routine in kind of a robot mode, doing as we do daily. As the day progresses and the cawfee is settling in, the feeling of strength and revival sets it, so you proceed. But here is the thing, when you proceed, you just have to make sure as you put one foot in front of the other that there is nothing standing in the way of your next step, like for a instance a chair with metal legs.

OUCH! FUCK! DAMN! SHIT!

I gotta tell ya, when my toe hit that metal leg of that goddamn chair, the stars that are so sparkly at night made an entrance in my brain, and they were not so sparkly, they were more like dull sharp stars hitting me in many directions. Once I collected myself and the stars had vanished, I looked down to make sure I still had a toe, and thank goodness I did. I hobbled over to my desk to see the actually damage. Well it was in one piece and I could bend it, but very sore to the touch, so I let it be.

By days end, I now had a purple toe (and no it was not my toe polish), and with each hour that went by the purple got darker. I wrapped the brusied toe to the toe next to it to try and keep it straight. The pain was dull, so I refused pain pills, however 10mg of ambien was taken instead of 5mg.

As the days past my poor toe continued on its path of turning different shades of purple. I tried all week to protect my toe of any other damaging items. Until Saturday nite, when I had forgotten the pain that so took over my body, I had the gall to hit the same goddamn toe on my computer desk leg.

OUCH! FUCK! DAMN! SHIT!

Purple Toe Soup, Yummo!

The good news tho, is the leg on my computer desk is not metal, its wood, so the pain was not as severe. I was the happiest person on the earth and could have done a happy dance that it was wood. Hmmm, actually could not do a happy dance with my sore toe, but you get the picture.

Now I just have to figure out how to get thru the week without hitting my toe on any other item in my path. This is not a easy task, but I am def up to the challenge. So please wish me luck, as I sure do need it.

:O)

Life of their own.....

by Bebbi

I remember the initial disappointment in not being able to play Little League like my brother. The hardest thing for me was that I felt like I was better than him when we played in the neighborhood. I don’t want to see women let down by society and not be able to fulfill all of their aspirations because of society’s need to keep males and females in boxes. This little story wasn’t about my breasts, but it got me to thinking about how my body, in particular my chest region, has shaped my life.

I got to wanting to write this blog because I was at work and started thinking about how my big boobs have held me back all my life. I liked to run and play sports but when I got my boobs they bounced so much that it embarrassed me and I quit running. I get treated differently because of my boobs and I have found myself “dumbing” down to keep with people’s image of me. I see where people try to fit into the boxes that others create for them. It is time to step outside the box.

One of my first experiences with boys was in the library in sixth grade. Some other boys dared one boy to come up and grab my boob. I was so embarrassed and appalled. I went to a teacher and it went to the principal and the boy had to go for counseling. His name was Jeff and he lived right across the street from me. From that time forward, my boobs held me back and I had no idea of the power they held until I was in my 30’s and 40’s! There was never any holding my boobies in, they have a life of their own!

When I was young and they were perky, men could only see my boobies. I spent most of my adolescent years and twenties with men and boys looking at them instead of my eyes. About 8 years ago I was at the bookstore working and a girl came in with very attractive breasts. I realized that if I had only realized how attractive they were I could have so used that to my advantage instead of to my disadvantage. So many young women these days realize the asset that their large breasts can be. But they come at a price too. I wonder if the people who have breast implants have noticed the price they pay for getting them? Maybe it is a figment of my imagination or my excuse to take the easier path?

Overall, I love my body. I especially am happy to have been losing this weight (as most of you are aware). I have never been comfortable in my femininity and it is ironic that now that I am older and getting hairs in unwanted places and sagging all over the place, I am finally comfortable in my womanhood! Boobies Rock!

In the future, and for all the young females I meet. I am going to make sure they do not get held back by being a woman. I will do whatever I need to do to help them understand that they can run, play ball, and be who they want to be regardless of their body and society’s constraints.

~ Awesome God ~

by Tina~in_ut

My oldest is at that age where he wants to be treated like an adult, but he's definitely still a child. I worry about him a lot and hope the hubby and I have raised him right. Every so often he'll say something to make us question our parenting abilities.

He was an altar boy for 8 years at our church and not too long ago, as we left church, he told us that he hated it and there was no reason to go. He loves the sciences and started talking about proof and all that. I kept my cool, or tried to at least, and let the hubby speak. He told him that if he felt that way, then he didn't need to go to Catholic High School and we'd pull him out and put him in public school. It would sure save us a lot of money. He balked at that and didn't want to be taken out of the high school he loves. We told him that the only reason he was going there was for the religion. (not really true....the education is awesome, too!) He decided he better keep his mouth shut, but he got me thinking.

I know it's normal for teenagers and young adults in their early 20's to question the religion they were brought up with. I did and so did my hubby. Shoot...my hubby converted. I thought that I should at least hear him out and keep him away from my mother. She'd have a fit!

The next day, we went to another service. This same boy told us that he liked the music at the Newman Center better. (DeeDee, we were at the Cathedral and the choir was singing) You should have seen my eyes......totally bugged out! Was this the same boy? Was he really paying attention today?

A month later, I came home from shopping and my son was upstairs cleaning the bathrooms. He blasts his music when he cleans. I stopped in my tracks. He was playing a song that is sung at St. Catherine's (the Newman Center) every once in a while. I love the way they sing it. The original version is slow and usually played with just the piano. At our church, they have guitars and drums along with the piano. This is the closest I could find to the version we hear at church and to the one my son has on his iPod. Mind you, this kid listens to techno music and rap, so to hear this coming from him, it just blew me away~

Yup, Fall Is Finally Here!

by Shirley

Yup, Spring and Summer have come and gone and now Fall is finally here. As promised, here is my opinion on Fall. They should have called it the dead season, because everything dies. The leaves, in all their splendid colors crumble up and die. The grass that you spent hours cutting and sweating over to make it look better than Bubba's (who has a ride on mower and you just have a push one) next door, turns brown and dies. The flowers in your perfect little garden (which by the way were much prettier than Mrs. Bubba's next door) all die. Yup, Fall is finally here!

Kids have finally gone back to school. The ones going away to college have taken a piece of your heart with them, as well as a good chunk of your wallet! All the store have taken the Back To School sales off and are now sneaking in Christnas stuff where ever they can. Putting Christmas candy in with the Halloween candy thinking we won't know the difference between a candy cane and and a pumpkin sucker. Don't eat the candy cane anyway, it's old stock and you'll never get the wrapper off. They put out all the old ugly Christmas cards and wrapping paper they couldn't sell last year, mark it down a bit, and expect us to buy it. Which of course we do, cause it's on sale and we can't pass up a bargain, right ladies? Yup, Fall is finally here!

Oh and let's not forget Halloween, the time when kids get to scare the crap out of people, assault them with rotten eggs, toilet paper their yard, soap up cars and windows and get away with it all. Plus they get candy for doing it! What about all the Halloween decorations you have to carry up from the basement or sort through in the garage. You know you want your house to be the scariest on the block. So what if Mr. and Mrs. Bubba next door had a real vampire last year, you have a welcome mat that says "Boo!" when you step on it. Life doesn't get any better. Yup, Fall is finally here!

Of course when you talk about Fall you can't help but talk about the weather. All those wonderful leaves to rake, including the ones Bubba has blown over into your yard with his handy dandy leaf blower. At night you freeze your ass off and during the day you sweat your ass off. What's up with that? Make your mind up Fall...do I wear long johns or a bikini? You refuse to turn the heat on until the last possible day, hoping for one last heatwave, but the kids can see their breath in the house and are wearing every piece of clothing they own and still freezing, so you agree to turn the heat on but, only to take the chill off. Yup, Fall is finally here!

One last thing...BAMBI RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!! Don't let those stupid humans, dressed in orange get you! RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!

Can't wait for Winter!

Johnny Appleseed

by Jennifer (iteach)

Every year at this time I teach a whole week theme on apples. We discuss the growing cycle of the apple, products that come from apples, apple tasting graph, and apple art work. The children love to work with the apples and it is a lot of fun. My very favorite part of this unit is Johnny Appleseed.

Have you heard of him? Did you discuss him at school? He is personally a hero of mine and I so enjoy talking about him to the students. Here is a little background information about him. Johnny Appleseed is a popular folktale about the life of John Chapman, a man who lived from 1774-1845. Born in Leominster, Massachusetts, John loved apple trees and apples.

As John watched apples grow, he became very interested in all of nature. He often played in the nearby forest and made friends with animals.

As soon as he was old enough, John traveled west to Ohio, planting apple orchards for new settlers. Along the way, as an explorer and adventurer, he cleared forests, slept and played with animals, befriended Indians, and other strangers, and survived many dangers. Johnny was so well- loved and respected by all who knew him that over the years legends spread about the man whom everyone came to call Johnny Appleseed.

As you can tell Johnny was a peacemaker. I always incorporate his peacemaking skills into our classroom. When there is a conflict in the room, I always say , "What would Johnny do?" . I know very corny, but it works with the little ones. Happy Johnny Appleseed Day!!!!

~ Mom, Where Can I Buy Body Paint? ~

by Tina~in_ut

"Mom, where can I buy body paint?" My oldest asked me that after school one day. "Excuse Me?" was my reply. My mind went straight into the gutter, so I needed an explanation. It turns out that he and his friends wanted to paint themselves for the "big game" on Friday night. There are two Catholic High Schools in the valley. They were playing against each other and there is a big rivalry between the two. Our colors are red and gold and the other team is blue. (You'll need to know that later!) I suggested he try Michael's Arts and Crafts. All the boys were chipping in and he was in charge of buying the paint.

The night of the game, hubby and I got to the stadium early to make sure we got seats. We're old and we actually like to sit during the game, unlike our children. All three of our kids were arriving with friends and we didn't think we'd see much of them. Then, right after the kickoff, here comes my oldest and his friends. My jaw dropped. My kid looked like Napoleon Dynamite! They caused quite a stir and I grabbed my camera to take pictures and video of them. Look at this fine specimen!!!!!


During half time, kids from all the grade schools in the valley performed a dance and afterward, while we were waiting for the second half to start, I happened to look over at the end zone and there were the crazy boys with the school flag getting ready to storm the field. They ran all the way around the field getting cheers from both sides. I found out later from the kids that one person from each class wins the "most spirited" award. I forgot to ask if my kid or one of his friends won. They should have.

Later, my daughter found us and I asked her if she had seen her brother. She looked visibly upset. I thought she was embarrassed because of the way he looked. She looked at me and said, "Mom! He's wearing BLUE shorts!" OMG!!!! Out of everything he did to his body, she's upset because he was wearing the other school's colors. Those shorts, btw, were borrowed from his friend's little sister!

Here is the video I took of them. They didn't know at first that I was filming. They thought I was still taking pictures:



Yes.....I'm proud to say....."That's my boy!!!"

Creating Time and Creating Space #7

by Whabby

All right, owls. Time’s a wasting (LOL), and we have very important business today. Last week, you and naked George (who, by popular demand, is now not only naked but erect as well) decided to measure the time for the light flash to travel up and down Shirley’s shaft while Shirley was traveling 150,000 kilometers per second (half the speed of light). This situation is captured in the illustration on the left side of the figure below. According to our calculations, from your stationary point of view on the ground, Shirley’s movement creates a Line B that’s 150,000 kilometers long. This forces the light pulse to have to climb up and down the sloping sides of the two adjoining right-angle triangles in the figure. From Pythagoras, the 150,000 kilometer Line B added about 36,000 extra kilometers to Line A, compared to the journey taken by the light pulse from the perspective of naked, erect George. Adding the same amount to Line A on the way back down (the hypotenuse of the mirror-image triangle), and 72,000 odd kilometers of extra distance would be added.

At the speed light travels, that extra distance should have added about 0.22 extra seconds to your base measurement of two seconds. Instead, though, your average measurement was 2.32 seconds, about a tenth of a second more than, at first glance, it should be.

Not a big deal, you say? Don’t count on it! To understand the significance of this seemingly tiny discrepancy, I need to pose a straightforward question to you. During the extra 0.22 seconds that the light pulse was taking to cover the extra 72,000 odd kilometers along the two diagonals (36,000 extra kilometers along each Line A), what was Shirley doing? Answer: She was continuing to move away at the same 150,000 kilometers per second! But, wouldn’t this constant movement stretch Line B, forcing it into getting longer? Indeed it would! Specifically, in the 0.118 seconds it takes the light pulse to cover the extra 36,000 kilometers along one diagonal (one Line A), Shirley moves about 17,000 kilometers further away. This stretches Line B from 150,000 kilometers, the length it is on the left side of the figure above, to 167,000 kilometers, the length it is on the right side of the figure. Of course, Shirley is moving at the same speed while the light flash is going up to the ceiling as she is when the flash is going down, so Line B stretches by the same amount on both of the mirror-image triangles.

From Pythagoras’ theorem, any time you add length to Line B, you’re adding length to Line A. Doing the math (I’ll spare you the actual numbers this time), lengthening Line B by 17,000 kilometers adds roughly 8000 kilometers to Line A; this is the source of the number 8 at top of Line A on the “uphill” triangle. But, hold on a minute! Isn’t your version of the light pulse going to have to take even more time to cover that additional 8000 kilometers? Sure. Since light travels so fast, its not much time, about 0.028 seconds to be precise (the number above the 8 in the figure). Still, even that little sliver of additional time is enough for Shirley to move an extra 4,000 kilometers to your right, which is of course also added directly to the length of Line B. I haven’t shown this in the figure, but 4000 extra kilometers along Line B lengthens the all-important Line A by a little under 2000 kilometers, which takes the light pulse an additional 0.0066 seconds to cover, which allows Shirley to move even a little further away… And so on.

See the pattern? Each additional increment in travel time for your light pulse creates an additional “window of opportunity” for Shirley to move even further away, and further lengthen Line B. From the Pythagoras Theorem, any increase in Line B has to donate additional length to Line A, which, in turn, takes additional time for the light pulse to cover. The bottom line: your spacecraft is now traveling fast enough to set up repeated cycles of space/time creation!

Of course, as we’ve also seen, these cycles of time/space creation shrink very rapidly. Within only about 18 of them (each one smaller than the last), the amount of additional distance along Line A is driven to virtually zero, choking off the opportunity for Shirley to move any further away before the light pulse reaches your fellow experimentalist, naked erect George. The whole space/time creation thing comes to a screeching halt and, even from your perspective, the light pulse reaches its destination, gets reflected by Shirley’s floor back to your eyes, and you hit your stopwatch.

Adding up all the additions to the length of Line B donated by Shirley’s movement from the point of departure (which corresponds to the time when she passed directly over you, and you and George both started your stopwatches), we get a final length of about 173,000 kilometers for Line B, which adds a total of about 46,000 kilometers to Line A. Multiplying 46,000 kilometers by two (to take into account the same additional distance added onto the light pulse’s journey after it was reflected off Shirley’s mirrored ceiling) we get a total increase in the distance your version of the light pulse has to travel, compared to George’s version, of 92,000 kilometers.

How much extra time does it take light to cover that much extra distance? You guessed it… approximately 0.32 extra seconds (actually, it’s .306666 seconds; I’m rounding to keep things straightforward).

Exactly the amount of additional time you measured on your stopwatch, compared to the two seconds measured by the steady, unfailing, naked, erect George!

We’re really starting to get somewhere, now, owls! The notion that, from your frame of reference, time and space mutually construct each other over successive cycles is pretty amazing. And make no mistake: these cycles of mutual creation are real. Suppose there was an odometer onboard Shirley that recorded the distance she covered from the point she passed over top of you to the point when the light pulse returned to the floor, two seconds later (as measured by George onboard). Since Shirley is traveling 150,000 kilometers per second, the odometer would read exactly 300,000 kilometers. In your frame of reference, though, when the light pulse hits the floor, Shirley has traveled almost 50,000 kilometers further. That’s a lot of extra distance out into space!

When you think about this, it raises all sorts of puzzles. To avoid thinking about them, you might be forgiven for saying to me: “What’s a few tens of thousands of kilometers, and a couple of extra tenths of a second, among friends”? True, there’s still not a dramatic discrepancy between your time measurements and those of George. Does that mean time dilation’s not that interesting, after all? Hold on, owls! Next week, we’re going to pull out all the stops, and crank up Shirley’s speed all the way to 299,999 kilometers per second, just one kilometer less than the speed of light itself.

This is going to do nothing to George’s measurements, of course (I mean his measurements of time, not his erection). It’ll be the same old boring two seconds for him. But. Anybody care to speculate on what time you’re going to record on your stopwatch?

~ Getting Ready for Wednesday ~

by Tina~in_ut

Since some of us are beginning to get lost on Wednesday's, I thought it would help if we did a little prep work beforehand. I'm not here to stress anyone out. It's not a requirement. It's just a little somethin' to get us ready~

So, Whatcha Think?

Good Morning

by Dianne_in_Denver

Good Morning Owls.....I thought I would send over the Sunday morning music blog to put you all in a cheerful mood. Now, I was going to say it was in my younger days when I took tap dancing (you all know how pretty I sing already) and that it was NOT TINA taking a video of me this time BUT....I am having a vibe that "some of you" might not believe me. I am still just going to say it was me along with two of my old best friends one morning but I am really just telling all of you "Good Morning" and Happy Sunday.



P.S. I just have to include Go Broncos beat Cleveland.

Lost on the Web..

This is not very original, its actually stupid, but I have to ask myself. WTF was I doing on You Tube for 2hrs. If I try to think back, I can't even remember what vids I was watching. I got totally lost and did not even realize how much time had gone by. Which is why this blog is not very original, and really is about nothing. Just think of it as a Seinfeld episode, which we all know his episode's were about nothing, but they were always about something, make sense?

So this blog is really about nothing, yet it is about something, getting lost on the internet, and forgetting about the sights and sounds around me, cause I completely zoned out. I wonder do other people get lost on the internet for hours, well wait, there is something out there called "Farmville" and I have noticed many people with, hoes, pitchforks, cherries, berries, and lots of grass, and I have also noticed many people go missing for hours, cause they have to "Farm". So yes, I would say many get lost on the internet. Whether it is to "Farm" watch "Vids" or anything else that you might fancy, we all get lost.

Just very glad at some point we reemerge and remember we are breathing!

~ This Is A Drill ~

by Tina~in_ut

At work on Wednesday, it was announced that we would be having a drill on Thursday, and everyones participation was mandatory. We would be activating the Passenger Inquiry Center....that is.....the place you call in case of an aircraft accident. Oh the dread we all felt.

I realize it was just a drill, and that's exactly the first words out of Melissa's mouth when I was "activated" and went to the briefing room. "This is a drill. Flight 69 from XXX to XXX was involved in an accident." The second she said the word accident, my stomach turned and I prayed we would never have to do this for real. Everyone in the room must have felt the same way because we were all quiet and everyone seemed to take this seriously. After we went to the next briefing room for further instructions, we were taken to a restricted area to sign into the computers and phones.

I can't even explain the anxiety I felt. In my head I knew it wasn't real, but the thought that this could really happen was unnerving. AND....although I could receive a call from "the media", someone calling to offer assistance, or someone just wanting details, I KNEW I would be one of the "lucky" ones to get a call from a relative of a passenger.

My first "call" was from the wife of a passenger. She was mean, yelling, wanting information and wanting it NOW! I was able to get her "husband's" name, her name and phone number, but when I entered the information into the computer, I wasn't given any information that told me whether or not he was on the plane. I tried so hard to put the woman on hold to get help from someone, but she wouldn't let me and kept berating me for not telling her what she wanted to know. We had several people walking around to help us. They were all wearing red and easy to spot. When I finally got the woman on hold, there was no one available to help me. I had my hand up waiving like mad, and the next thing I knew, this man I had never seen before was there to help me. He wasn't wearing red. He was actually dressed in business attire. I was so nervous that I didn't care who he was. He seemed to know everything that I was doing wrong. He was such a help. The system we use for this process is something that we are not familiar with. We've never used it for anything else and thank God we haven't used it for what it's intended for either. I sent the woman's information in instead of "searching" the system for the passenger. When I clicked on search, up came the man's name. He was listed as a passenger booked on the flight, but thus far, we had not confirmed that he actually got on the flight. That is what I had to tell her.

If I've learned one thing at this job, it's never ever think you know how a person is going to respond. I thought this woman would start crying once I gave her the information. Oh NO!!!! She thought it was ridiculous that I couldn't tell her for sure if he got on the plane. And let me tell you right now....the people that they used to make these phone calls, they should be nominated for Academy Awards. They were incredible. They stayed in character the entire time and in an office where I'm constantly wearing a sweatshirt because I'm so cold, I was sweating bullets. That's how convincing they were.

Oh! And I made a big boo-boo! The woman was telling me that she wanted to know now and I was no help, and then I said one of the two phrases you are NEVER to say to these people. I said, "I understand!" What I meant was that I understood that she wanted the information, NOT that I understood how she felt. The other no-no phrase is, "I know how you feel!" Thank God I didn't say that one. She lost it again. I never really finished that call because she finally hung up on me. The next call came right in and it was the sister of a passenger. Just my luck! I wanted a "media call."

Afterwards, I learned that the man who had helped me was the person who designed the computer program we were using. He was so nice and helpful. In the debriefing room, we were treated to homemade cookies! Since I'm the type of person who likes to let management know how something works and offer suggestions on how to make it better, I did just that. As crazy as it seems, I also asked if we could do this more often......just in case~

Funnies for a Thursday

by Maureen

Another in box of funnies, Enjoy!

1. Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggert have written an impressive new book. It's called ...... "Ministers Do More Than Lay People."

2. Transvestite: A guy who likes to eat, drink and be Mary.

3. The difference between the Pope and Your boss: The Pope only expects you to kiss his ring.

4. My mind works like lightning: One brilliant flash and it's gone.

5. The only time the world beats a path to your door is if you're in the bathroom.

6. I hate sex in the movies. Tried it once. The seat folded up, the drink spilled and that ice, well, it really chilled the mood.

7. It used to be only death and taxes. Now, of course, there's shipping and handling, too.

8. A husband is someone who, after taking the trash out, gives the impression that he just cleaned the whole house.

9 My next house will have no kitchen - just vending machines and a large trash can.

10. A blonde said, "I was worried that my mechanic might try to rip me off. I was relieved when he told me all I needed was turn signal fluid.

11. Definition of a teenager? God's punishment...for enjoying sex.

12. As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way.

by cpgem8

Number 12, had me thinking, if the person sliding down the banister is someone of the caliber of Kayne West, then I say, let the splinters point the right way! HA!

Number 6, tried it, broke the seat, and had popcorn stuck in my ass for two days! Sex in the movies is def not for a Lane Bryant Wannabe Diva!

Time for some Time Dilation? #6

by Whabby

At the end of last week’s installment, you and naked George had agreed to perform the time measurement experiment again, but this time with Shirley moving smartly along at half the speed of light, or 150,000 kilometers per second. After your customary hundred or so repetitions of the experiment, George is starting to climb the walls with boredom, as he keeps measuring the same old two seconds for the light pulse to go up and down Shirley’s shaft. Your watch, though, is measuring something distinctly different: a shade over 2.3 seconds.

Say what? This difference can’t be blamed on naked George. He’s been well trained to switch the searchlight on and off at the exact point he and Shirley are passing over top of you. Thus, you have supreme confidence that you and he are starting your stopwatches at exactly the same time. Where is this extra 0.3 seconds and change coming from?

The figure to the left shows where. In the second it takes the light flash to travel up to the ceiling, Shirley travels exactly 150,000 kilometers along the line to your right, so Line B reaches 150,000 kilometers in length. In George’s frame of reference, the pulse only has to go up and down the equivalent of Line C. For you, it has to climb up and down Line A, the diagonal side of the two right-angle triangles. Looking at the shape of the triangles, it is clear that your “version” of the light pulse has to cover more distance than George’s version.

How much more? Let’s do the standard pythagorian calculation and find out. Remember, to get the length of line A, you multiply the length of Line B by itself (square it), and the length of Line C by itself, add the two together, and get the square root of that summed value. 150,000 (Line B) squared equals 22 billion, five hundred million kilometers (see what happens when you square an already huge number?). We already know that Line C squared equals 90 billion kilometers. Adding these two big values together gives us exactly 922 billion, five hundred million. The square root of that number is just slightly under 336,000 kilometers. Both Line A going up and Line A going down are close to 336,000 kilometers long, for a total distance of almost 672,000 kilometers.

Whoa, owls! That number is roughly 72,000 kilometers longer than the distance the light flash has to travel from George’s perspective! Clearly, your light pulse is going to take more time to cover that extra distance. How much? Easy. Light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second, so covering an additional 72,000 or so kilometers will take your pulse about 0.236 seconds of additional time.

Let’s take stock here. Two different observers, you on the ground and naked George in Shirley, are measuring the identical event and finding that it takes different amounts of time to complete! The conclusion is irrefutable. When you measure the length of an event that occurs in the frame of reference of a spaceship (or anything else) that’s moving very fast with respect to you, the event take more time than it does when the event is measured from within the moving frame of reference itself (in this case, measured from “the moving frame of reference itself” means performing the measurement from onboard Shirley, the way naked George is doing).

Mathematically, it’s the increasing length of side “B”, brought about by Shirley’s motion, that is to blame. The longer Line B is, the longer Line A is, and the more distance the light pulse has to cover from your stationary perspective.

But, there’s actually a slight problem with this analysis. Recall that the average of the values you measured from your stopwatch was actually a little over 2.3 seconds, almost a tenth of a second longer than the 2.236 seconds you should have been measuring if the light pulse was traveling “only” 72,000 extra kilometers. You’re understandably quite eager to sweep this discrepancy under the rug, attributing it to just measurement error perhaps, since it’s so small. But I can tell you now, owls, this difference is not to be trifled with. In fact, as we’ll discover in next Wednesday’s blog, it holds within it the best part of the time dilation phenomenon!

Would you care to speculate in today’s comment section about where the discrepancy is coming from, and why it is so important? Or just wait for next week?

Here’s a hint: During the 0.236 seconds that it takes the light pulse to cover that extra 72,000 kilometers, what is Shirley doing?