{"id":98049,"date":"2022-12-26T15:25:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T22:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=98049"},"modified":"2022-12-26T17:22:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T00:22:51","slug":"physics-in-wonderland-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Physics in Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
At the Stanford Linear Accelerator
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen\u2019s Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith<\/em> (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2021).\u00a0 They are, as I\u2019ve previously explained, an initial hasty and unpolished pass on the topic that they address.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been getting a kick, by the way, out of the overeager attempts by some on the Peterson Obsession Board to divine the argument that I\u2019m making with what I\u2019ve written here about the Guillen book \u2014 e.g., indignantly complaining that I\u2019m attempting to discredit reason and rationality, to attack science, to argue that my religious beliefs must be \u201ctrue\u201d because we supposedly can\u2019t confidently say anything about reality anyhow, to contend that, since everything is subjective, the supposedly subjective experiences of the Book of Mormon witnesses are just as valid as anybody else\u2019s subjective feelings, and etc. and etc.\u00a0 As is usually (and black-comically) the case with them, they\u2019re not even in the same conceptual ecosystem<\/em> as I am.\u00a0 Extreme bias coupled with hostility, sloppy reading, undisciplined extrapolation, and a presumed gift for clairvoyance will do that to you.\u00a0 (Here\u2019s a hint:\u00a0 I haven\u2019t even laid an argument out<\/em> yet.\u00a0 These are just collections of information that I\u2019ll eventually use in support of a much bigger argument \u2014 one that is quite unlike anything that the POB has yet managed to attribute to me.)<\/p>\n

In any event, here are some further notes based on my reading of Michael Guillen:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Einsteinian spacetime, there are the familiar three spatial dimensions of up\/down, right\/left, and forward\/backward (x<\/em>, y<\/em>, and z<\/em>).\u00a0 But there is also a dimension of time (t<\/em>).\u00a0 (For my present purposes, that\u2019s all that I\u2019ll say here about four-dimensional spacetime.)<\/p>\n

More than seven years ago, I wrote a column for the Deseret News<\/em> that was titled \u201cMaterialism isn\u2019t what it used to be.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 And it still isn\u2019t<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Since at least the days of Aristotle\u2019s Physics<\/em>, scientists assumed that distances, times, and masses \u2014 the mundane quantities that we measure by means of rulers, clocks, and scales \u2014 were stable.\u00a0 Inflexible.\u00a0 Competent and careful observers would always agree on such matters as the length of a meter, the duration of a minute, or the mass of a penny coin.<\/p>\n

It turns out, though, that distances, times, and masses are elastic.\u00a0 The length of a meter, the duration of a minute, and the mass of a penny vary according to the situation \u2014 and specifically to the speed \u2014 of the measurer relative to the thing being measured.\u00a0 This weirdness only becomes evident and obvious at very, very high speeds, but it occurs everywhere.<\/p>\n

Suppose, for instance, that you\u2019re holding a precisely-made, hard plastic ruler in your hand that is exactly twelve inches long.\u00a0 To a person driving by at sixty miles per hour, however, your ruler will seem a little bit shorter than twelve inches.\u00a0 To be exact, it will seem to be 11.999999999999952 inches long.\u00a0 (Remember, these things only become really evident at speeds that are much, much higher than that of even the most deranged driver along I-15.)<\/p>\n

To choose another example:\u00a0 Assume that you\u2019re using a smartphone stopwatch app to measure out sixty seconds, and that your stopwatch is very precisely accurate.\u00a0 To somebody who speeds by at sixty miles per hour, however, that minute will seem to be 60.00000000000024 seconds long.\u00a0 Your stopwatch will appear to be running more slowly than the driver\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Or consider a shiny, brand-new penny.\u00a0 (By now, you must surely have realized that an example using a penny was coming.)\u00a0 According to the United States Mint, that penny \u2014 2.5% copper and 97.5% zinc \u2014 has a mass of exactly 2.500 grams.\u00a0 To the person who is measuring the penny from a car passing at sixty miles per hour, however, the mass of the penny is 2.50000000000001 grams.<\/p>\n

A person unfamiliar with the implications of Einstein\u2019s special theory of relativity (and with the experiments that confirm it, such as those involving subatomic particles approaching the speed of light in atom smashers) might common-sensically respond, of course, that the same object cannot have two different masses or two different lengths, that the same minute can\u2019t have two different durations.\u00a0 In each case, one of the measurements must be the correct one.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 But relativity emphatically says No.\u00a0 There is no privileged position from which one can declare such measurements Objectively Correct.<\/p>\n

Moreover, speed is relative.\u00a0 Imagine yourself driving along the freeway at sixty miles per hour.\u00a0 (I know.\u00a0 I know.\u00a0 Who really drives on the freeway at sixty miles per hour?\u00a0 Certainly nobody in Utah<\/em> does!\u00a0 But bear with me.)\u00a0 That, anyway, is the speed at which the Highway Patrolman parked at the side of the freeway clocks you.\u00a0 Irritatingly, though, the car in the lane next to you is keeping exact pace with you.\u00a0 So, relative to its driver, you are traveling at precisely zero miles per hour.\u00a0 You\u2019re not moving.\u00a0 It all depends upon one\u2019s frame of reference, upon one\u2019s point of view.\u00a0 Neither the Highway Patrolman nor the irritating driver in the next lane is right about your speed.\u00a0 And neither is wrong.\u00a0 (My own addition: The \u201cstationary\u201d Patrolman is actually parked on a rapidly spinning planet \u2014 if he is at the equator, it\u2019s spinning at about 1670 kilometers or 1038 miles per hour \u2014 that is orbiting around the Sun at approximately 107,000 kilometers [nearly 66,500 miles] per hour.\u00a0 And the Sun itself is moving through space in an arm of the Milky Way galaxy at about 828,000 kilometers [or 515,000 miles per hour].\u00a0 And the Milky Way Galaxy is traveling through the universe at roughly 2,100,000 kilometers [or 1.3 million miles] per hour.\u00a0 So, when we say that an automobile is moving at sixty miles per hour we have always only been saying that it is traveling at that speed relative to<\/em> a policeman parked alongside the road.\u00a0 Or relative to a rock, or to a drunk, or to one of my exceedingly strange critics as he\u2019s huddled over his laptop.)<\/p>\n

But there actually is<\/em> one seemingly privileged reality:\u00a0 the speed of light in a vacuum.<\/p>\n

Suppose that you\u2019re standing (in a vacuum!) at the doorway of your bungalow when a light quantum streaks past you.\u00a0 With your astonishingly precise twenty-seventh-century radar gun, you clock it as going 299,792,248 meters per second.\u00a0 Exactly what you expected.\u00a0 But somebody else is driving by at 1,000,000,000 miles per hour, a little fast for your neighborhood.\u00a0 If he\u2019s going in the same direction as the light quantum or in altogether the opposite direction, that should affect his measurement of its speed.\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 But it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 The light quantum will still appear to him as if it\u2019s traveling at a speed of 299,792,248 meters per second.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Michael Guillen:<\/p>\n

Unlike the speed of a car or anything else in the universe, the speed of light doesn\u2019t depend on one\u2019s point of view; it\u2019s the same for everyone, everywhere, always.\u00a0 It\u2019s an absolute truth, the only speed in the universe with that supreme status \u2014 for reasons, mind you, we do not understand.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mystery.<\/p>\n

One final thing about light\u2019s puzzling sacredness:\u00a0 You and I can never accelerate to the speed of light, no matter how hard we try.<\/p>\n

The harder we try, the more massive we become, making it all the harder for us to speed up.\u00a0 (135)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen\u2019s Believing is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2021).\u00a0 They are, as I\u2019ve previously explained, an initial hasty and unpolished […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19472,32790,33015,10531,10189,132,32787,2193,11887,32889,2195,10204,10222,18541,434,7536],"class_list":["post-98049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-albert-einstein","tag-believing-is-seeing","tag-dimension","tag-dimensions","tag-distance","tag-einstein","tag-guillen","tag-light","tag-mass","tag-michael-guillen","tag-physics","tag-relativity","tag-spacetime","tag-special-relativity","tag-speed-of-light","tag-time"],"yoast_head":"\nPhysics in Wonderland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen's Believing is Seeing: A Physicist\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Physics in Wonderland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen's Believing is Seeing: A Physicist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-26T22:25:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-27T00:22:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/10\/800px-SLAC_pit_and_detector.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html\",\"name\":\"Physics in Wonderland\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-26T22:25:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-27T00:22:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen's Believing is Seeing: A Physicist\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Physics in Wonderland\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Physics in Wonderland","description":"    I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen's Believing is Seeing: A Physicist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Physics in Wonderland","og_description":"    I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen's Believing is Seeing: A Physicist","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2022-12-26T22:25:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-27T00:22:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/10\/800px-SLAC_pit_and_detector.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html","name":"Physics in Wonderland","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-12-26T22:25:34+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-27T00:22:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    I now return briefly to writing up some notes that are inspired by and\/or are based upon Michael Guillen's Believing is Seeing: A Physicist","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/12\/physics-in-wonderland-1.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Physics in Wonderland"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}