Seeing is not always believing!
There is a deeper reality beneath that wch appears to our senses
Reality is not always as it appears to the senses!
In some ways The entire physical world as it presents itself to our senses is an illusion.
The evidence of our senses is often unreliable. We should not be controlled or dominated by the evidence of. our senses alone.
To blindly believe in and accept the evidence of our senses at face value , is to be fooled!
The eye may see the large as small
To our eyes the sun appears the size of a bowl; but reason/intelligence tells us that the sun is much,much larger!. Our eyes see the sun traversing the sky from dawn to dusk, but reason tells us this is a perceptual illusion caused by the rotation of the earth.
When we stand on a basketball we are very aware of the curvature of the sphere we are standing on; but when we stand on a sphere the size of the earth we have no awareness of its curvature...and indeed the earth appears to our senses to be flat
When we stand still on the surface of the earth we are completely unaware of any sensation of motion...yet the earth is orbiting the sun at the astonishing speed of 29.658 km/second. (Total circumference of earth's orbit divided by the solar year is 365 days,5 hours,48 minutes, 46 seconds!) ... and the velocity of our Sun's orbit around the galaxy is about 220 km/s.(230 million years to complete one orbit around t he center of our Milky Way galaxy)There are countless other instances (e.g. Moonlight is actually (reflected) sunlight...and stars are not stars at all, but distant suns!). where reason belies the evidence of our senses.
This does not mean we should distrust and totally dismiss the evidence of our senses (our senses are our primary means of acquiring knowledge) ...but rather that we must look deeper. We must question, verify and interpret this sensory evidence according to reason and intelligence.
If we depart from the earth at the speed of light, to our eyes the earth disappears (becomes invisible)because no light leaving the earth can reach us.When we look back at the earth our eyes can only see blackness. But reason tells us that the earth is receding from us at the speed of light,and the distance between us is increasing at. 299792.458 km/second.
Or to put it in another equivalent way the space/distance between us is expanding at approximately 300,000. km/sec
All motion is measured relative to a stationary object or fixed pointl
According to the relativity of motion, no observational frame of reference has preferential status or superiority/exclusivity
If we transpose our view point (observational frame of reference) to the. photon and use it as our fixed frame of reference, it is the earth that is moving away from the photon at light speed.
This " thought experiment" contravenes the dogma that no object possessing mass can travel at the speed of light.
This .may be why any light or light source moving away from us at light speed is invisible and undetectable (as in "dark energy/dark matter"). Perhaps we should think of darkness not as the absence of light,but rather as light that is receding from us, or unable to catch up to us!
When we peer deeper into the apparently dark spaces between the stars we see more stars and more light. The deeper into space we look, the more light we are able to see/capture. Is there a way of knowing how much of what exists in the universe Is in the form of light (electromagnetic radiation)?
rhaps Most of what. exists is in the form of light, most of wc h is invisible and not measureable
It is a mystery how the further back in space we look,the further back in time we see!
Is there a limit to how deep we can look and how far back we can see?!
Perhaps some day we will be able to see all the way back to the light that was transmitted from the original source 14.7 billion years ago!
Perhaps we will be able to see the Big Bang ( the First Cause)-- the beginning of the universe! The beginning of time!
according to the theory of relativity every motion must be considered as a relative motion.
ReplyDeleteThus the photon departing from the earth is in motion with respect to the earth
But from the reference point of the photon ,the photon is stationary and it is the earth that is moving away from the photon.
Both descriptions of this single event are equally valid and justifiable depending on one's observational viewpoint or frame of reference
Neither reference body is unique,special, or more valid than the other.
According to the theory of relativity, no object possessing mass can be accelerated to light speed. But from the body of reference of the photon ,the earth's current state of motion is equa!l to the speed of light!
If it was not "accelerated" to that speed, it must have reached its current uniform speed instantaneously (i.e. in zero time)!
But what if the theory actually says that "no body possessing mass can move at the speed of light" whether it was accelerated to that speed or whether it reached that speed instantaneously?
Another solution would be to assume a point of view external to both the earth and the photon.
From this observational vantage point ,from the instant of separation between photon and earth, it is the space between them that is increasing/expanding at the velocity of light.
Which Way Round is Right?
ReplyDeleteA certain wise man was widely rumoured to have become irrational in his unconventional presentation of facts and arguments.
It was decided to test him, so the authorities of his country could decide whether he was a danger to public order or not.
On the day of the test he paraded past the courtroom mounted on a donkey, facing the donkey's rear.
When the time came for him to speak for himself, he said to the judges : "When you saw me just now which way was I facing?"
The judges said "Facing the wrong way".
You illustrate my point" he answered, "for I was facing the right way, from one point of view. It was the donkey which was facing the wrong way!"
from \The Way of the Sufi page 192
The rate of expansion of space is measured as the change in distance between two greatly separated objects as a function of time.
ReplyDeletePresumably the space within galaxy clusters and even super clusters is not expanding. Galaxies within these structures are moving toward each other under the influence of gravity.
But we are told that the universe is expanding! So this "expansion" is not homogeneous everywhere....but may only be prevailing in the space between galaxy super clusters??
The rate of contraction of space between any two galaxies within a galaxy cluster ( due to the gravitational attraction between them )must. be corrected by subtracting the rate of expansion of the matrix space in wch they are imbedded.
What was Einstein's rationale in fusing these two distinct dimensions of space and time into one " space-time" dimension.
Since velocity. is defined as space÷time, does combining space and time not render the concept of velocity meaningless? Does it not also render the concept of the "expansion of space" meaningless?
We are told that the universe is expanding at an accelerating speed.
ReplyDeleteIf the speed of expansion continues to increase, we can assume that at some point in time it wiIl reach the speed of light.
What will happen when the speed of expansion reaches the speed of light?
Perhaps the expansion rate will slow or even stop as it approaches light speed.?
ReplyDeletePerhaps the universe will implode? Perhaps the force driving the expansion will run out of steam ,and the whole shebang will fall back upin itself .Perhaps it will reverse direction and contract back to the original singularity?