34student

Yes, I have a better understanding of the mechanics of GR. But it is very unsettling to me. Like you mention here, I want to chat more about this in philosophy. Size, maybe, but shape, no. I might start a new thread in philosophy.

Oh of course I trust the experiments and understand that some of our technology needs certain aspects of relativity to be true. I am not trying to deny that. Relativity is incomplete, at least at the quantum level. So it seems possible that it could be corrected in other ways too. And this issue I have seems, at least to me, to need a correction.

This simply says that the universe, in its entirety and ontologically, has intrinsic properties A, B, C ..., but it also does not have intrinsic properties A, B, C.... At best it seems to be a consistent ontological contradiction.

Thanks. But this theory makes me think of the universe as one huge physical contradiction. To a photon the universe is a pancake; to me it is spacious. Is the universe spacious or is it a pancake? If both answers are correct, then we have a contradiction. What am I missing here? And why isn't this a bigger issue?

The side to side motion would look like s's connecting over and over, and the circular motion would look like a spring.

A world line, as exactly defined, is not a particle. But I understand that the world line is the path that the particle take through the 4 dimensions. But in another since, the block universe seems to imply that the particle exists along the world line.

Yes. Isn't a particle a world line because of its time dimension?

I am talking about the implications of relativity as in the block universe. Since particles appear to just exist as static world lines, I do not understand how a static universe like this can have different parts that are simultaneously different sizes from length contraction. And what does it physically mean to be an observer?

If the question in the title is yes, then is velocity and speed just the shape that the "strings" make? And if the answer is yes to the second question as well, then what does it physically mean to "be an observer travelling at relativistic speeds"? Finally, how does length contraction come into all of this if these strings are static and unchanging? Please help me

Please, show me the post that says there is an absolute length and time. This is the only thing new to me since I made the OP.

Yes, I did not know some of what you have mentioned. Having said that, this seems to raise all of my issues all over again. What does this mean for the OP. Is the train 1 meter, 100 meters or something else? And are these length contractions really just illusions of the actual distance, the space-time distance?

The universe in a given moment in time.

Which post did you tell me this?

This is very interesting. I did not know that there was a distance that all observers can agree on. Is this an absolute distance or something?

Really? Given the context, you have no idea what I mean? It means a physical state of the universe. Can you please answer my question first. If you can give a serious attempt at answering my question, then you may understand my issue.

Yeah, I should not have said that. Then there must be a t' that equals a t from the t interval (2050 - 2100) on Earth. Let's call it t* Is there one or more sizes of train in the frozen 3d universe at time = t*

Okay please stay on this with me. I feel like something is about to give. The way I am thinking about all of this is that t' and t are on one timeline since the universe would only have 1 dimension of time. So t' is going to intersect with some t. Do you believe that t' is inside the interval t, where t is the from the beginning of the year 2050 to the year 2100, from the OP example?

As I understand it, the train is, in fact, 1 meter in Bob's frame. This is not suppose to be an illusion. This is suppose to be the reality for Bob's universe. How can you blame me for being confused (or right?) Well, if we had to use past scientific theories as absolute truth, then I don't think we would have gotten very far with it. As it stands right now, both. I know that I am probably wrong, but I have a very strong objection - at least in my mind - that has yet to be show to me to be false. Yes, the muons I will admit are haunting me. They are the best and only strong counter point that I have seen yet. As for your diagram, I understand what you are saying. But my argument implies that there is only 1 distance. The diagram fails to be a proper analogy of my issue because there is not ever only 1 direction.

I know about the experiments and I have a sufficient understanding of SR and a block universe. Nobody wants to to discuss my examples and directly explain where they fail. That is why I came here, and that is what I want to explore.

Well look at your response to me. You just ignored my post and repeated yourself. I know all of this already. We do not have to go over all of this again. Nobody wants to directly address my posts. Everyone just keeps telling me that SR must be true over and over again.

Ok, then let us just think about some state of the universe S1 at some time T1. T1 is a moment when the train is 1 meter for Bob. We can examine this frozen frame of the universe, yes? If so, then I would think that we can see if the train really is 1 meter. If this is allowed, continue reading. Now an observer on the train who is on the train the whole time that Bob is gone will never have a 1 meter train for some interval of time that contains T1. There seems to be a contradiction here.

Yes, you understand my question. Now are there also world lines from 2 particles that are 100 meters apart, as measured from an observer on the train? Yet I am told that each particle only has 1 world line.

Since the particles are 1 meter apart and they travel along world lines through time, then doesn't that imply that their world lines are also 1 meter apart?

A train with a proper length of 100m. This is from the example that I gave in my OP. So we can say that the particles are 1 meter apart, but we can't know if their world lines are 1 meter apart? Why not?

Ok, now, are the particles on each side of the 1 meter long train, also have world lines that are one meter apart?