Re: ABSOLUTE TRUTH ABOUT ABSOLUTE SPACETIME

From: luke (funk420_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 06/19/04 

Date: 19 Jun 2004 05:02:06 -0700

perfectlyInnocent@as-if.com (Perfectly Innocent) wrote in message news:<c45b45b3.0406181454.60560d19@posting.google.com>...
> luke <funk420@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<pn86d05h9n89cdd49dtd9qca378tjshfkn@4ax.com>...
> > On 18 Jun 2004 05:02:05 -0700, Perfectly Innocent wrote:
> >
> > >It's not known if the space we live in is absolute or not.
> > >[...]
> >
> > Nor is it well defined what you are talking about. What is "absolute
> > space"?
>
> The featured quote of the first link answers your question:
>
> "The Special Theory of Relativity, we teach our students, did away
> with Absolute Space and Absolute Time, leaving us with no absolute
> motion or rest, and also no absolute time order. General Relativity is
> viewed as extending the "relativity of motion" applicable to curved
> spacetimes, and General Relativity's most probable models of our
> actual spacetimes (the big-bang models) appear to re-introduce a
> privileged "cosmic" time order, and a definite sense of absolute rest.
> In particular, some of the same kinds of effects whose *absence* led
> to rejection of Newtonian absolute space are present in these models
> of GTR." -Colloquium for 13-NOV-97 Abstract, UCR.
>
> http://www.everythingimportant.org/viewtopic.php?p=1948#1948
>
> The basic concepts defining what is absolute were derived and
> illustrated in the remaining links:
>
> http://cornell.mirror.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v8/i6/p1662_1
> http://www.everythingimportant.org/viewtopic.php?t=79
> http://www.everythingimportant.org/viewtopic.php?t=605
> http://www.everythingimportant.org/relativity/simultaneity.htm
>

Thanks for the info. I guess my problem is that I still see no real
definition for "absolute" in this context. Are not we free to define
units and coordinate systems as we see fit? I guess not entirely, if
our system breaks down as with the SR on a circle case.. none the
less we could use SR on a circle as long as our measurements were
limited to a certain piece of arc. Any system will have its areas of
inapplicability.. standard SR/GR coordinates break down at an event
horizon for example, and people use Schwarzschild coords. Also at
10^-35 cm, the standard meter and second definition become
inapplicable.

My dictionary says:
absolute (physics):
Relating to measurements or units of measurement derived from
fundamental units of length, mass, and time.

Perhaps a bit circular with "fundamental" in there? I don't see how
relativity theory did away with absolute space or time from this
definition..

Thanks for the reading - luke

Relevant Pages

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