Anatomy – Spacetime
Why does listening to a boring lecture felt like an eternity, yet your favorite show always ends in a blink of an eye?
Have you ever wish that you can be at multiple places at the same time simultaneously?
How much time do you have left to live?
Time, represented by clocks, is a measurement of mass/energy in relation to space. Spacetime illustrate the ever-present restraint of mass/energy, including humans.
Due to the confines of spacetime, our experience is sequential, in a linear fashion, furthermore we are restricted to a relative spatial position which exert energy to relocate. Simply put, time is only comprehensible to us through past, present and future. Moreover, we are restrained to be in a single location at a time. We are mortals, thus our time as sentient beings are finite which further limits our capabilities. Hence, countless intellectuals including emperors, alchemists, global leaders, scientists, etc. seek to extend human life indefinitely.
Sands of time devours even the best of us. Try as we may to defy spacetime with our technologies, automobiles, electronic communications, medical advancements, we are merely extending our limits through manipulation. Spacetime is the sandbox that we all play in. The theory of special relativity and general relativity allows us to properly conceptualize spacetime mathematically.
Spacetime is relative, depends on our position and velocity relative to any inertial frame of reference, our perspectives, sequential experience of time can vary vastly. In other words, one person’s past may be another person’s future. The explanation of such phenomenon is beyond the scope of this blog. However, if such topic intrigue you, further study of special relativity and general relativity is recommended.
e=mc2 is a iconic equation for numerous reasons. Human bodies are mass(m)/energy(e). Speed of light(c) is the constant. One of the subtle indication of the equation is that mass/energy exclusively exists lesser the speed of light. The idea of time dilation suggest that the moment mass reach the speed of light, mass itself becomes zero, thus mass not only cease to exist at and beyond the speed of light, time as we know it also become immeasurable in a linear fashion. Yet another boundary of human comprehension.
Fun Fact : c is squared in the equation merely for the sake of calculation, due to kinetic energy(KE/e) formula is also squared. (KE=1/2mv2)
If the content in the blog went way over your head, just know that the restraint of linear time is present in all of us. To escape such constraint is to attempt to be removed from existence.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
– Genesis 1:3-5(NIV)
What do you think? Are you a fan of Albert Einstein?