Friday, November 21, 2008

The four dimensions of motion

Everybody knows the three dimensions of space and motion.First dimension:A point in space. Second dimension:horizontal motion. Third dimension:vertical motion. These three dimensions are what let us move through space. But what Special Relativity tell us, is that there is a fourth dimension of motion:time. Apparently, everything moves through time (that makes sense when you think about it.) The more motion you have through space, the less motion you have through time. This means that time is relative. If there was a car that could travel at 99.99999 percent of the speed of light, it would move through time much more slowly that a bystander. if the driver had a watch, it would tick much more slowly than the bystander's watch. There is also a strange conclusion to be drawn from this. There is a particle which travels at the cosmic speed limit of 670 million miles per hour, called the photon. Because this photon is using all of it's motion to travel through space, it does not move at all through time. Photons do not age! Light is just as old as it was after the big bang.

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