Pete, all of this stuff is highly mathematical and does not lend itself to simple explanation. I don't even understand most of it and I have a scientific background!
In the Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein determined that time is relative. In other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference.
There is no such thing as simultaneity between two events when viewed in different frames of reference. Simultaneity - Wikipedia
In the Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein determined that time is relative. In other words, the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference.
There is no such thing as simultaneity between two events when viewed in different frames of reference. Simultaneity - Wikipedia
Someone will have to "dummy it down" for me first!Okay, so let's dummy it down to "slow". I can relate to that
Special relativity is based on the idea that the laws of physics are the same for all observers. It follows from the surprise that the speed of light is the same for all observers. And all that slowing clock stuff and shrinking rulers which follows.
The God Particle" was just a sensational book title. Proper physicists hated the name:
Higgs boson - Wikipedia
I have been reading about the hypothetical Axion particle tonight:
Quanta Magazine
Tiny mass, spin 0, charge 0, interacts through gravity and (surprisingly) electromagnetism. Just fixes several headaches in physics and cosmology.
Axion - Wikipedia
Mysteriously it can modify Maxwell's Equations of electrmagnetism. It's not a bad idea. Just got to find them now.
The God Particle" was just a sensational book title. Proper physicists hated the name:
Higgs boson - Wikipedia
I have been reading about the hypothetical Axion particle tonight:
Quanta Magazine
Tiny mass, spin 0, charge 0, interacts through gravity and (surprisingly) electromagnetism. Just fixes several headaches in physics and cosmology.
Axion - Wikipedia
Mysteriously it can modify Maxwell's Equations of electrmagnetism. It's not a bad idea. Just got to find them now.
Since photons travel at c, they do not experience the passage of time (Relativity). So, to a photon leaving a distant galaxy 13 billion years ago and getting detected here on Earth the time has passed in an instant.
This happens because it’s rest mass is zero and as Galu explained, if rest mass is zero, a particle travels at c (a direct prediction of Einstein’s E=mc^2). As soon as a particle or body has mass, it cannot travel at c because the energies required to do so become absolutely enormous (again, E=mc^2) so we say the particle has to ‘pass through time’.
In tne LHC, they use huge amounts of energy to accelerate just a few atoms to 99.99% of c - so this E=mc^2 stuff really does work.
Just reading about this in ‘The First Three Minutes’. It was predicted in the 1970’s!
Like all good physicists, including Newton, Einstein built upon the work of others.
Einstein said he owed more to Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell than to anyone: "There would be no modern physics without Maxwell’s electromagnetic equations: I owe more to Maxwell than to anyone."
Einstein described the change in the conception of the reality in physics that resulted from Maxwell’s work as "the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton."
James Clerk Maxwell | Biography & Facts | Britannica
I believe space exists for a photon, but time does not exist for it as it uses up all of its spacetime speed travelling through space.
He was. Probably he understood stuff his teachers did not and repeatedly ask embarrassing questions or exhibited other behavior deemed unacceptable. Some folks group geniuses with extreme weirdos.
Photons behave in a certain predictable way and have no need to think. Physics have discovered that photons within visible spectrum can be seen, various detectors have been devised to aid "seeing" those beyond range of visibility.
Can a photon become stationary? When converted to heat for example via the Sun, does it gain mass? How can a photon's existence be timeless when it's in motion?
No, a photon has no mass so will move through vacuum at C, reduced speed in denser medium and absorbed if it tries to enter infinitely dense object ie blackhole.
A photon can be created or absorbed, no known conversion mechanism and will not have any mass in this universe since it does not interact with Higgs field in this universe. How it does in other universes is anybody's guess.
Existence of a photon can end abruptly when absorbed but does not itself experience time because it moves through space at C.
These are all consequences of relativistic and quantum mechanics view in physics. I don't think anybody can logically or intuitively understand the stuff, one can only accept what the formula and observation show.
"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." - Richard Feynmann
I get a proton slowing down when it hits a transition into a denser medium. Sort of.
Why does it speed up again when it exits? Is there a force of some kind it carries within it, or is directing its motion? Is there a transition in speed between go and stop, and stop and go?
Mind melting, again.
Why does it speed up again when it exits? Is there a force of some kind it carries within it, or is directing its motion? Is there a transition in speed between go and stop, and stop and go?
Mind melting, again.
I am sure that of the three greatest physicists that ever lived, James clerk Maxwell would be one of them.
I can also perfectly understand that if a Scotsman were asked to vet the choices, he'd ask 'Why Newton?'
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