i think i get it

[Kaytie11]

so like my dad was trying to teach me relativity like a month ago and i like heard and rember wut he was saying... but my mind just cant put it all together to make a picture.....

 

 

so yesterday like i love scienve btw so i think about it alot so yesterday i was getting dressed.. and like im in boarding school right now so like there is showers.. and like little stalls for each one... and i got out and was getting dressed and i was looking at myself in the mirror and someone walked in. and i was like they will see me so i put my towel around me..

 

 

but then like ok like the shower is like this... like you have

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I B o

oooooooooo o

ooooo o

oooooooooo o

ooooo x o

oooooooooo o

oooooooooooooooooooo

 

ok so the I is the door...

the A are like a big long mirror

 

the x is me

 

the B is the other person...

 

 

ok so like..... i was looking at myself in the mirror... and i was like well if the mirror was on that wall.. they can see me so i was scared

 

but then after they left i was thinking about it... and that mirror is only showing the picture relative to me.... so even tho they may hav looked at the same part of the mirror at the same time... they wudnt see the same thing.......

 

 

 

is that relativity?

[swansont]

Ummmm, not really.

 

Relativity deals with the fact that what you measure depends on your frame of reference, i.e. whether two observers are stationary with respect to each other or moving with respect to each other.

 

If you observe two events (say, explosions, 1 and 2) as happening at exactly the same time, another observer (call her Alice) who is moving would not see them as simultaneous. Alice sees 1 happening before 2. Yet another observer (Bob), traveling in a different direction at a different speed might see 2 happening before 1.

 

You all disagree on the order, and yet none of you are wrong, because what you observed depends on your frame of reference. That's (part of) relativity.

[thedarkshade]

My God!

 

"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" - Albert Einstein

 

It reminds me of "the spherical cow" thing. OVERSIMPLIFICATION!

[5614]

For example if you are on a moving train and drop a ball then you see it go down and then bounce back up. Whereas someone outside the train (on the platform) will see the ball go down/up but also along (because the train is moving). So you see the ball move like || whereas the person the platform sees \/.

 

http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Course_Material/Py230L/relativity/relativity-ex1.htm?D1=1

look at that animation at the top (set the v/c value to say 0.5), then click Set value and play... you'll see what I mean.

 

The point is that if you apply the up/down thing on a train to light then you get some weird effects. That is part of the basis of relativity.

 

If you want me to explain more then just ask and I'll be happy to!