{"id":2496,"date":"2017-02-01T22:37:36","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T04:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/?p=2496"},"modified":"2017-02-01T22:37:36","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T04:37:36","slug":"open-letter-to-stephen-hawking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/open-letter-to-stephen-hawking\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter to Stephen Hawking"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is one thing humans have relied on, well beyond the standard clich\u00e9 of death and taxes.\u00a0 It is the universal standard of a second as an enduring constant across cultures and time.\u00a0 Some extremist with a jittery trigger finger can do us all in, but the clock will still tick and the earth will still age.\u00a0 As it was in the beginning, now is and ever shall be.<\/p>\n

At least that was my complacent world until you and your astrophysicist colleagues informed me that a second slows down in space.\u00a0 You called it time dilation, first detected in sub atomic particles moving at lightning speed.\u00a0 Naturally you wanted to share this triumph of physics with a lay audience, but how to dumb it down?\u00a0 Your solution was to blithely announce that astronauts do not age in space.\u00a0 An astronaut returning from Mars would youthfully spring from his capsule to greet his identical twin, now decrepit and feeble.<\/p>\n

I have never been able to believe something so fantastical.\u00a0 This example also propelled you into an other-worldly level of intelligence that normal humans dare not enter.\u00a0 Frankly, I felt patronized by this \u201ctwins separated by space\u201d example, so bizarre that it forced me to place blind faith in the inaccessible intelligence of astrophysicists.<\/p>\n

Dr. Hawking, I needed a believable explanation, something that I could drop into a cocktail conversation and then vicariously bask in the exalted intelligence of an astrophysicist.\u00a0 A suitable opening would be hard to find since casual chatter rarely veers into astrophysics.\u00a0 But if someone uses the clich\u00e9 \u201cyou know it\u2019s not exactly rocket science,\u201d I could be ready to pounce with \u201cYou know, rocket science is really not as complicated as you might think.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a simple explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hustled off to the library to consult your best seller \u201cA Brief History of Time,\u201d and even better the companion volume \u201cA Briefer History of Time,\u201d with the appealing subtitle, \u201cThe Science Classic Made More Accessible.\u201d \u00a0However, I am sorry to say that your two books \u2013 and I even looked in the children\u2019s library to see if there was a third even more basic book \u2013 only got me part way there.\u00a0 I could see that you were trying very hard with your thought exercises that involved playing ping pong on a moving train, but you lost me when you added graphs, arrows and flashing lights.<\/p>\n

I know your problem.\u00a0 You know too much and you are getting in your own way.\u00a0 \u00a0You and I are similar in this way.\u00a0 I have fallen into the same situation with my vast knowledge of knitting.\u00a0 Sure I could delve into the history of knitting and talk about the relative merits of synthetic or natural fibers or I could talk about all sorts of fancy stitches \u2013 yarn-overs, intarsia or brioche.\u00a0 I would love to share my enthusiasm with an appreciative audience.\u00a0 But I have seen that glazed look \u2013 I am sure that you have seen it too.\u00a0 For a general audience of non-knitters, I keep it simple and explain just one stitch \u2013 the knit stitch. Well maybe I would add in the purl stitch also.\u00a0 You can create a stunning garment with these two stitches.\u00a0 But no more than that.<\/p>\n

I think I can help you simplify your time dilation discussion.\u00a0 My AHA! moment came when I discovered nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.\u00a0\u00a0Let’s build on that to create one of those thought exercises that physicists love.<\/p>\n

Imagine that a stationery person is watching me on a moving walkway at the airport, and then imagine that the walkway is moving at the speed of light.\u00a0 Stay with me here \u2013also imagine that I am running late, so I start to stride along, adding my walking speed to that of the moving walkway. Now I would be moving faster than the speed of light, and that\u2019s just not possible.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the big finish.\u00a0 I think that we can all agree that rate x time = distance.\u00a0 But something must give when the distance is fixed and the rate appears to be faster than the speed of light.\u00a0\u00a0And it is time.\u00a0 Time on the walkway slows down compared to the stationary person.\u00a0\u00a0 Done!<\/p>\n

Dr. Hawking, I know that I have over simplified, but frankly that was my goal. You see, I’ve gotten people interested in knitting just based on one stitch, and astrophysics should be no different.\u00a0 My explanation has been well received at cocktail parties with lots of appreciative nods.\u00a0 In fact, feel free to use my example in the next edition of your book.<\/p>\n

However, my major take away is that time dilation has no practical implications for human aging.\u00a0 The twin astronauts were a bad example and unnecessarily upended my world.\u00a0 A second is really a second.\u00a0 One chimpanzee, two chimpanzees, relentlessly for millions of years.<\/p>\n

Therefore, please add the following caveat to the next issue of your book.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have probably heard the saying that astronauts don\u2019t age in space.\u00a0 While traveling near the speed of light does have funky effects on time, any anti-aging effects on humans are negligible and a clear overstatement of facts for dramatic purposes only.\u00a0 On behalf of all astrophysicists, I would like to apologize for this exaggeration and any associated misconception that physics is only for the cerebrally endowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Liza Blue<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is one thing humans have relied on, well beyond the standard clich\u00e9 of death and taxes.\u00a0 It is the universal standard of a second as an enduring constant across cultures and time.\u00a0 Some extremist with a jittery trigger finger … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,23,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mcsweeney-rejects","category-to-the-best-of-my-knowledge","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-Eg","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2502,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2496\/revisions\/2502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}