Delta, Δ, at least in chemistry,
Most often refers to heat, to introducing
Increasing thermodynamic chaos, usually at
Very high temperatures. But lower case delta,
δ, signifies change; that's all: smooth,
Continuous change from one state to
Another. We know intuitively about the
Three dimensions of space, and we infer
One dimension of time; melt them together,
Minkowski advises, into conceptually useful
Four-dimensional spacetime. Now objects
In motion in spacetime experience
Continuous changes in position (s) in
Unit time (t), or in other words, velocity (v) is
δs/δt. And when velocity itself changes over
Time, objects experience acceleration (a), or
δv/δt. Interestingly, our good friend Albert
Conceived how gravity is only a kind of
Acceleration arising from the curvature
Of spacetime.
There's something very funny about
Acceleration.
20090604
Delta
Copyright © 2009 Ernest Bloom.
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Indeed, there is. You know, I'm no science whiz but I feel ashamed and despaired to say that I have so far failed in understanding what the Theory of Relativity is all about. I think it takes a really wicked mind to conceive a theory so utterly abstract and elusive to the average Joe.
ReplyDeletei don't think joe has much to do with it, average or otherwise; it's more a matter of our senses and our lives being so tightly linked to a very narrow bandwith of experience. we are not calibrated to have direct experience of worlds on microscopic or macroscopic levels: most of us spend whole lifetimes strongly anchored to the middle-realm; consequently, we don't directly see relativistic effects, for example (or quantum effects, at the other extreme) and therefore wrongly conclude they are diffiuclt to comprehend, when in fact they are already part of everyday reality. as the man said: 'spectral analysis breaks full down/at the borders of the middle ground.'
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