How often do we really compare what we learn as part of academics to our own real life? Some do this always, some do it now and then, and some really dont care. Well I belong to the first kind and sometimes I get lost in my own world trying to map things in physics and science to the thought process of our brain in real life....
Einstein's theory of relativity compares the mass and speed and says how one entity becomes negligible or very small compared to the other entity. One of the most recent comparisons that I found out was how we perceive 'distance'.
When I was in India, I would visit places in and around Karnataka often atmost an overnight's journey equivalent to 250-400 kms. I felt that Northern India was faaaaaaaaaaar away and so never really tried to make a trip to North India.
However, now that I am in US, I find that for every small thing, we have to make a trip of around 4-5 miles. I was even thinking of visiting my friend in New Jersey once a while which is around 1500 miles from Dallas. This is equivalent to the distance from Blore to Lucknow(almost 3/4 country's length) if you calculate. Here you see the change in 'perception'. As soon as I landed in US, instead of realizing that US is a big country and places are far, I started measuring distance relative of the country's width. This means, I felt that NJ was only half way across the country, which was not THAT far. More so, because of the distance I had already travelled (India to US). Now that I had travelled India to US (very faaaaaaaar), if I see the northern places in India now, I feel that the places are not really 'far away'. But because of my 'local comparison', I thought that way... And that is why I say 'far' and 'near' are always relative. We cannot really say it in an absolute sense.
Also for people in US, travelling 50-60 miles everyday for work is a day-to-day affair. But think about that in Bangalore.. how much fuss we make to go from North Bangalore to South Bangalore even if it is once a while for some wedding. People go 20 miles just to do some shopping. How far do we actually travel in Bangalore to do our shopping?
Come to think of it, ANY measurement metric we use is relative to something we fix as a 'reference'. This is the beauty of life and Einstein just put that in the form of a formula and that is why he is great.
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3 comments:
this blog is v. v. gud. let me also share wat Einstien said sme thin else abt Theory of Relativity in a very humourous way.u may also add it in ur blog if u like it.He said"If u sit with a gal 4 one hour, it seems like an hour,but let him sit on a stove 4 a minute n he will seem it like an hour.This is Theory of Relativity."
Continue with ur scraps buddy.
Hey Prash, nice blog. However, in Einstein's relativity, there is no time line ! In your's, you need to have time line & speed factors considered and then you accept, distance doesn't matter at all, as long as the relative time of travel is shorter. That's the difference between India and US travel(ofcourse, when no traffic during off-peak hours..whew!)
Yeah u are right vna aunty.... As u travel faster.. distance of no importance......
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