this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2023
1177 points (96.9% liked)

Science Memes

10515 readers
2366 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
1177
research (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
70 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Phlogiston 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m a little amused that in the comic both viewers are correct relative to their frame of reference. An extremely powerful concept that significantly advanced physics and about which famous people are household names.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m a little amused that in the comic both viewers are correct relative to their frame of reference. An extremely powerful concept that significantly advanced physics and about which famous people are household names.

You accidentally made the wrong point, because Einstein's breakthrough of special relativity was that the speed of light is constant regardless of reference frame.

So if two people with different frames of reference are measuring the speed of light differently, at least one of them is objectively wrong.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But if they measure the order of events differently, they may both be correct. That is because light is always perceived as being the same speed regardless of the observer.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

And yet, causality is preserved, and there is a clear specific mathematical relationship between the two frames of reference.

So you will measure differently, but as soon as you do the math to account for your different frames of reference, you will again have the same measurements. Of course, we know there is an objective mathematical relationship between the two frames of reference, because the speed of light is constant.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you assume this is the entirety of the universe of the comic (perhaps encased in a spherical cow), sure.