Time and space are connected in the concept of “space-time,” and as Einstein also demonstrated, Energy, the “E” of his famous equation, and Mass, the “M” of the same equation, are one and the same thing and connected by the speed of light – 299,792,458 meters per second, squared, which comes to the astonishing number 89,875,617,873,681,776 meters per second. Whew!
The Earth is also a speed demon in its own right. As one sits in a chair, one is spinning on Earth’s axis in a circular motion relative to the sun at a speed of 1,041.7 meters per hour to make one Earth day, and is moving in orbit around the sun at a speed of 69,360.73 m/h to complete one Earth year. In the words so common to TV advertisers, “But wait, there’s more!”
Our solar system is also in motion within the Milky Way Galaxy toward the constellation Hercules at 43,200 m/h and at the same time in motion perpendicular to the galaxy’s plane, or disk if one will, at 15,824 m/h and in motion relative to the massive black hole at the Milky Way’s center at another healthy clip, 446,440 m/h.
When one calculates the effects of speed and general relativity, it is clear that there is no such thing as a fixed time for everything. The Global Positioning System (GPS) that anyone can use in any number of ways, even with a “smart phone,” would not, could not, operate with any accuracy if Einstein’s “thought experiments” in relativity were not calculated into the system beforehand to compensate for each GPS satellite’s speed “relative” to the Earthbound creatures who use it.
Think of the relativity problems in relation to NASA’s Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) project during which they orbited an asteroid named Eros that was discovered in 1898. NASA tracked, and rendezvoused with Eros. And more exciting from an engineering point of view, the NASA scientists and engineers actually landed the probe softly on Eros’ surface.
Everyone on Earth, Americans especially, benefit each and every day from all the progress made in every facet of life by the efforts of each and every scientist who ever lived, both male and female. Yet today it’s a mystery to me why “conservatives” constantly disrespect scientists of virtually every discipline, and especially those involved in climate research and claim they “lie” about global warming.
Ken Hughes
Decatur
and continue to cut funding for the space programs like NASA. Good for you Ken.
And none of this would be possible with out the Creator of the Universe, God himself. True science proves the existence of the Creator, and does not seek to disprove it.
How laughable. UP is Down, Right is left and some people cannot recognize their own dogma. I wonder how old some of these gentle people think the Universe is. 6000 years old, 14 billion years old? How many believe there are countless worlds full of intelligent species out there? Science is what it is. So maybe scientist say we have a man made global warming problem it’s really God saying, “Wake dumb people you only have one planet you can count on to live on, and your screwing that up to!”
But what do the those passing out the dogma care about that!
Craig, one must assume you also believe the universe was ‘created” for humans only 6K-years ago and is a benign and human-loving place. I’ve got news for ya’ mate, humanity and all life exists only at the mere chance and the cosmos is not a warm, fuzzy place created to support us; it’s NOT! All life on this planet can be snuffed out in an amazingly short time by any of a great number of natural disasters, and human-caused global warming is just a slow version that can also kill us all just slowly.
I can’t respond to Mr. Hughes people, because there is no response for someone who is so out of touch with reality. If a person can look at the universe, from the smallest particle, to the largest view in the outer realms of the universe, and not see the millions upon millions of perfectly knit together so called “chance happenings”, so many that could fill a matrix of information as far as the telescope could see, and not KNOW that a higher being, God, was not involved, but the sole creator, then that person is beyond normal reasoning. I never mentioned a warm fuzzy place, and I never said it was created for me. Those are your words, so you keep them. The universe was created for God’s glory, and none other. It is not warm and fuzzy, in the least. It is wrought with evil, hatred, violence, and anger. And it will end in a violent manner, not a “natural” disaster, because God’s word tells me that it will. And I am ok with that, because I won’t be here.
Rhetoric from happy trails CB. Didn’t you hear that the scientists at CERN finally identified the Higg’s Boson, euphemistically named the “God Particle” and he, she, or it is an invisible man-made particle that gives mass to all the other particles as hypothesized by Einstein a long time ago?
The irony of the 1993 American approach to science and research was the cancelling of the Waxahachie, Texas-centered Super Conducting Super Collider that would have operated at 40 TeV whereas the Large Hadron Collider at CERN operates at 14 Tev and would have located the Higgs Boson probably a decade or more ago.
The US Congress voted in Oct, 1993 to kill the SCSC project that would have assured the supremacy of scientific inquiry would have remained in America instead of today being in France and Switzerland. One must suppose that Texas Republican’Ts would have picketed the place for High Order Thinking and teaching real science and particle research, and most of all critical thought.
I suppose they could have called it a church and you and a bunch of other Texans would have smiled and agreed.