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August 05, 2004
Did the clock slow down?
I think it is interesting how many people depend on science for their belief stucture, but the truth provided by science seems to change every few years. Yahoo! News - Solar System May Be Unique After All -- Astronomers
Sceince is pretty good at looking at things right now and trying to understand them. The problem is outside our our solar system, Things are not 'right now' what we observe right now in the sky happened a long time ago.
Speaking of time, I don't think we understand time at all. Every scientific observation is time dependent, and makes the assumption that time flows at the same constant rate that it is flowing right now.
If I remember my high school physics, almost every formula had a 't' in it representing time. If time accelerates, do objects fall faster, slower or the same? We can hypothisize, but the only way to find out is to speed up time and see what happens.
Einstein's theory of relativity suggests that time does not flow at a constant rate. Objects experinence time at different rates based on their speed and mass.
So, when scientists say that the earth has been around for x number of years, based on erosion carbon dating or other techonolgies, This is a guess based on assumptions that time flows at the same rate as it flows right now. Not a safe assumption.
Posted by jreighley at August 5, 2004 12:06 PM
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Comments
I love pondering relativity as an amateur theoretical physicist. I get to have all the fun and none of the responsibility. Have you seen the September issue of "Discover" magazine? The whole thing is devoted to Einstein and relativity.
Posted by: Dave at August 6, 2004 08:34 PM
I have not. I am going on a trip tommorow, so I should have pleanty of time to read it. I will search one out. Thanks for the tip!
Josh
Posted by:
Josh Reighley at August 6, 2004 09:56 PM
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