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THE  INFINITE OCEAN
Relativity's Space and Time Without Math
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"Naturally, it seems obvious that the past and future that correspond to the earth correspond also to the moon and sun, just as this seemingly absolute distinction applies identically to the solar system, and likewise to nearby stars. Extending this idea further, we realize that this seems true for the entire universe, at any distance, not matter how far. That is to say, that it must be the same time everywhere, because what exactly would it mean for it not to be? How? It not being the same time everywhere seems unimaginable. Not knowing, we might mistakenly think that so imagining lies outside of our intellectual reach, without realizing that we would be wholly incorrect in thinking so. This mistaken image of universal absoluteness (along with any presumed limits upon our ability to imagine more) is best expressed as “the theory of absolute space and absolute time (measures).” It is a model we surely cannot even remember acquiring, much less how, or why; and, unless we learn differently (one way: by reading the content), it is a model that we retain for our entire lives mistakenly believing that it accurately embodies the way that nature really works. Grasping relativity can correct this misunderstanding by replacing it with an understanding that corresponds perfectly to how nature, in actual, physical fact, truly does work."



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THEORETICAL PHYSICS MADE EASY
© 2015 Chongo (C. Tucker), All rights reserved.
This book is designed to teach. That is, to educate anyone in the foundations of what is commonly perceived as an extremely difficult subject, namely, theoretical physics. This is done by excluding all math. Picture illustrations and words are used instead. Pictures and words are all that are needed for explaining theoretical physics, like relativity, for example.

The Theory of Relativity is a description of the ‘shape’ of the universe, and of the unstoppable motions of its time. Contrary to popular belief, the foundations of theoretical physics are not complex but simple, especially those of relativity. This is why everyone who can, should learn it; at its heart, theoretical physics is easy to understand and can be grasped within months, leaving the individual who chooses to learn it intellectually far stronger. It is mistakenly perceived difficult to learn surely because its understanding is not yet widespread. But once, neither was reading skill. The world was mostly illiterate. Ignorance ruled all. Now, nearly everyone reads, and a far better world than one without widespread literacy, is the result. Just as life is enriched by so many being literate, so can it be even more, by everyone understanding accurately how nature really works, starting with the foundations that describe it best, starting with the most fundamental, the Theory of Relativity.

An accurate understanding of nature changes forever one’s view of the world. It provides hope for its future. For most, life itself is now richer than it has ever been in history, thanks, in enormous part, to science, genuine science, providing the marvels that so enrich our lives, like long life-spans, travel, communication, and medicine, just to mention a few. The world would be much, much less, in the absence of scientific understanding, no less than it would, again most certainly be, in the absence of simple literacy being commonplace. On the whole, most people benefit from our more modern world, filled with far greater opportunities for humankind than a less modern world, a world without genuine scientific understanding (without its foundations, like without relativity), could ever offer instead. The more, overall, who learn science, the richer the world becomes.

You can help yourself individually, and help everyone else collectively in the process, by learning about the simple idea that the Theory of Relativity is. Learning is far, far easier than one might have ever imagined. And, because relativity is so conceptually simple, once learned, this learning lasts for the duration of one’s entire lifetime, again, very, very easily.


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Einstein's Theory of Relativity
for Everyone


THE
INFINITE OCEAN
Relativity's Space and Time
without Math

  by Chongo  
in collaboration with José


Because nature
really does belong
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An in-depth, conceptual explanation of the fundamental principles upon which the Theory of Relativity is based, explained in the fewest number of words that it can be adequately explained, without resorting to mathematical notation. There is not a single mathematical symbol contained in the text (except the page numbers). The most basic foundations of classical science are described in a way that anyone, regardless of their educational background, can understand, and most of all, explained in such a way that one comes to understand in very clear and concrete principles, free of any ambiguity, just why they are – indeed, why they must be – true, positively.
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"Naturally, it seems obvious that the past and future that correspond to the earth correspond also to the moon and sun, just as this seemingly absolute distinction applies identically to the solar system, and likewise to nearby stars. Extending this idea further, we realize that this seems true for the entire universe, at any distance, not matter how far. That is to say, that it must be the same time everywhere, because what exactly would it mean for it not to be? How? It not being the same time everywhere seems unimaginable. Not knowing, we might mistakenly think that so imagining lies outside of our intellectual reach, without realizing that we would be wholly incorrect in thinking so. This mistaken image of universal absoluteness (along with any presumed limits upon our ability to imagine more) is best expressed as “the theory of absolute space and absolute time (measures).” It is a model we surely cannot even remember acquiring, much less how, or why; and, unless we learn differently (one way: by reading the content), it is a model that we retain for our entire lives mistakenly believing that it accurately embodies the way that nature really works. Grasping relativity can correct this misunderstanding by replacing it with an understanding that corresponds perfectly to how nature, in actual, physical fact, truly does work."
 

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"Thus, we are left asking, how can one abandon such thoroughly tested notions as those that have taken us so far through life and through our biological evolution too (very effectively, as a whole), and replace them with notions that nothing we have ever seen or even imagined, has implied or emulated? If our intuitive notions aren’t true, then what, exactly, is? What model of measurements, for time and space alike, can replace the model that nature has provided without contradicting this same effective one that we have already? There exists such a model. It is called the Theory of Relativity. And, for measuring spatial distances, time intervals, any combination of the two, the motion of big things, or the effects of gravity, it is a more accurate model than that ordinarily provided by nature, though for the sake of surviving the rigors of life, certainly not necessarily the most practical one – that is, unless our understanding the precise measure of space and time, and understanding the deep truths that this precision reveals, is very probably an absolutely indispensable necessity for humankind’s survival (like, for example, tracking big errant meteors that threaten collision with the earth, or sending crafts into space to direct them elsewhere).

"According to relativity, conventional intuition – at least the conclusions it would ordinarily make with respect to the universe’s geometry – is (again, ordinarily) very flawed. But, given a sufficiently open mind, this flawed intuition can correct itself and become incredibly insightful provided one is prepared to abandon altogether embracing some of the deepest cornerstones of one’s most fundamental thinking, for the sake of replacing them with new, more correct ones. This is what makes learning relativity the most important step in understanding nature (science), at its heart, in a true way. Ignoring our intuition is what makes learning relativity, though conceptually the simplest step, usually the most formidable obstacle one must overcome in order to begin to understand nature in the deep and sound ways that science does. We must ignore that which we can hardly imagine not being true, in order to understand (ultimately as part of a larger picture) what, in actual fact, really is. It is a step that one cannot elude, without eluding the very understanding itself. Luckily, this is not as overpowering as one’s intuition might, again, mistakenly imagine, that is, provided that we are willing enough to forget what has always, with certainty, seemed undeniably true, and embrace what irrefutably is, instead."
 
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"Lastly, before continuing ... there is yet a final important point that should be made with respect to our innate and intuitive, conventional ways of thinking, the ones that we must abandon altogether to the end of learning relativity. Abandoning old ways of thinking, we are left asking: how can we ignore “everything” we innately and intuitively believe is true about reality when it is this very knowledge that brought us to the point of even being capable of understanding and hence explaining nature in a new, true, and richer way in the first place, as we are doing now? Answer: We can ignore all the knowledge leading us here by recognizing that it is this very knowledge itself that brought us to this point of even seeking deeper explanations, successfully explaining nature far more accurately than any beliefs ever did. Now they compel us to ignore these very conventions themselves, by providing the insight allowing us to recognize that from here, they can only serve to impede us from achieving this new understanding that we now seek.

"Though we must ignore the notions that ultimately led us (science) to recognizing that they must be ignored, we likewise should admire them for having brought us to the point of doing so, despite their shortcomings in explaining nature as accurately as theoretical physics does. Different knowledge may have never brought us to the point of recognizing its own shortcomings and hence could instead have achieved either a great deal less or far, far worse than did the knowledge that was our fortune. At least it finally saw what were the true foundations of nature, just as we will begin to do the same, by learning the basic ideas that underlie a magnificent human achievement called the Theory of Relativity and the remarkable things that it reveals. We honor that achievement by learning relativity, as well as redeem the sacrifices made for the sake of accurately understanding nature, by embracing its inescapably compelling truth for ourselves."


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"We are only as free, as our understanding of nature allows us to be.
Hence, ignorance can only be bliss, in a world where freedom is not."
  FOREWORD  
by Victor Pareyra, Professor of Mathematics, Stanford University

In the few years that began the twentieth century, Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity revolutionized the world of physics by showing that despite centuries of success, Newton’s account of natural laws did not model nature’s motions accurately. In contrast, Einstein’s new model, the Theory of Relativity (General Relativity), did. At about this same time, another new but different model, the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, expressed the individual wave character of all energy by accurately explaining phenomena that up until then had yet to be explained, providing a model that mirrored reality exactly, ultimately, even accounting for complex biological phenomena such as evolution.

Like no others before, these two descriptions of reality changed our understanding of nature, from the very smallest to the largest, and everything in between, forever, enduring now over a century of repeated testing, with exquisite and unparalleled, accuracy and precision. Now, after trillions upon trillions of tests, neither has failed on any occasion ever. Together, these two descriptions of the world encompass everything existent in nature, including our very awareness of life and of existence itself. No other body of ideas ever conceived even comes close to matching their flawless history of performance or their predictive power of revelation for specifying factual truth.

The consequences of these two giant leaps in science have had immense repercussions in everyday life. From atomic bombs to nuclear energy, from computers to cell phones, lasers, and microwave ovens, the Theory of Relativity and the Theory of Quantum Mechanics have changed the world in which we live in profound ways. Now, after more than a century of unprecedented success, common and widespread understanding of these brilliant intellectual tools is still limited to the very few, even though the basic ideas underlying either can be understood by anyone capable of reading and of grasping the most simple of abstract notions.

This work attempts to expose people to the fundamental principles that underlie the first of these marvels of the human intellect, the Theory of Relativity, and in so doing, advance overall human understanding of nature by explaining its foundations in great conceptual depth, without resorting to any mathematics. Nature’s space and time, and its gravity, are explained, using only words, a few illustrations, and a simplified version of our own reality, by means of an imaginary world inhabited by much less physically complex, two-dimensional versions of us.

Though far simpler than ourselves, just like our famous three-dimensional scientist Albert Einstein did, a great two-dimensional scientist among these fascinating two-dimensional creatures in our story comes to discover the relativity of two-dimensional space and time measures with respect to the motion and gravity that characterizes their much simpler world, just like it does ours. In doing so, this scientist shows us how we much more complex, three-dimensional creatures in our much more complex three-dimensional world can do the same, that is, understand the relativity of space and time measures, exactly as this brilliant two-dimensional hero in our story does. Luckily, we can do so far more easily than any two-dimensional creature ever could, given our additional dimension of height and its matching insight, which this far simpler version of Einstein could never himself have had (though is able to overcome nonetheless, just as we will overcome the similar limitation too). We can follow his rich story of scientific discovery that parallels our own equally rich story, and reach the same understanding ourselves about the character of space and time, just as this two-dimensional scientist ultimately does.

This conceptual yet thorough, non-mathematical explanation of the most fundamental and accurate working description of space, time, including the motion of big things occupying them, and most significantly, gravity, that there has ever been, can serve as a foundation for understanding an even deeper theory, the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, which is the most fundamental and accurate working description of energy (meaning everything lying within space and time) that has ever existed. Grasping relativity is the first step toward comprehending this magnificent body of ideas; a body of ideas that ultimately even leads to explaining life (in quantum theory), and moreover, can flatly demonstrate life’s distinction in actual, physical experiments (e.g. the two-slot experiment of quantum mechanics), as well. Relativity is the beginning of this road to discovery.

No formal education is needed for this text or for its companion (The Infinite Pattern). Simply choosing to learn is the only real step that one must take. All subsequent steps come far more easily.

Understanding science starts with understanding its most important foundations, one at a time, beginning with what is surely the easiest yet most fundamental and essential foundation, the Theory of Relativity, which, when coupled with the Theory of Quantum Mechanics (again, see companion volume, The Infinite Pattern), together, rank unquestionably among the most outstanding of all human achievements, short of humankind’s refinement of courage, insight, compassion, and liberty, along with their benefits for all.

This book can begin to introduce the reader to a fulfilling adventure of intellectual amazement, by means of the great human achievement that the Theory of Relativity is and the destination where the road of scientific exploration can ultimately lead, provided that we are willing to open our minds to the solid factual truth of the conclusions that constitute the substance of science. In the face of the widespread misunderstanding and misinterpretation of science that is so commonplace today, this can require great and enduring courage, deep and revealing insight, genuinely sincere compassion, and the greatest love of liberty that a truthful understanding of nature is capable of yielding, to anyone willing enough to work for it, which is what one must inescapably do for the sake of gaining such fulfilling enrichment. Be assured however, that the journey is well worth the effort, unquestionably, and the understanding that can be gained, capable of enduring for an entire lifetime, and never become out-dated, which again, has been the case for what now will soon be well over a century.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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See Foreword

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i

Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0

0. The Theory of Universal and Absolute, Space and Time Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

I. Opinion and Falsehood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

II. Truth and Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

III. What Relativity Does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

IV. A Single Human Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

V. The Many, Many Different Perspectives of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

VI. The Dimensions of Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

VII. Motion According to Relativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

VIII. Time's Debut as a Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

IX. Fixing the Problem With Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

X. Dimension and Complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

XI. Time Being Identical to Space Means Many Reference Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

XII. The Crux of Relativity: What ‘Now’ Is – And Isn’t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

XIII. Special Relativity’s Straight Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

XIV. Tilting a “Space” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

XV. Relativity’s Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

XVI. The Conservation of Energy and Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

XVII. Using Relativity for Explaining Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

XVIII. What Relativity Means . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

XIX. What Relativity Does't Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Appendix A: Experiment Demonstrating Special Relativity’s Tilting of a “Space” and the Moving Train Example . . . 89

Appendix B: Experiment Revealing Our Physically Existent, True ‘Now’, Individually Unique Space . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Appendix C: The Shape of Space ('True' Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Glossary and Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117


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"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is understandable."
–Albert Einstein
PREFACE
(Spiral Bound Version Only)

By addressing the subject of theoretical physics, we are compelled to ask, how in the world can an accurate understanding of nature’s most foundational truths so greatly enhance one’s life experience? What exactly are the benefits that grasping relativity yields? How can a greater understanding of the motion of far-away bodies, bodies much too distant to ever be seen with the naked eye, have any direct impact on our everyday lives? How can the contemplation of the nature of gravity, improve our participation in what is occurring around us and in us? How can gaining an understanding of the overall shape of space and time have any significant impact upon anything? Why even learn such an obscure and abstract subject? Put more bluntly, why take all the time and effort needed, simply to learn something that we will probably never use directly, on a single occasion throughout the duration of our entire lives outside of a classroom? Why not invest that effort elsewhere instead?

The answer is simple: learning relativity greatly enriches one’s life by enriching one’s understanding of time and space, in ways that that individual would have never otherwise imagined without it. Not only does learning relativity do that, but ultimately, it can lead to enriching one’s life even more, by providing a basis for explaining why life even is at all. This is because relativity provides a basis for grasping the other side of theoretical physics, the theory of energy, formally termed the Theory of Quantum Mechanics. The Theory of Quantum Mechanics, or quantum theory for short, incorporates “an observer” into the math; an observer that seems like it must be alive, in order for the math to yield a result. As a matter of fact, quantum theory not only incorporates an observer, it actually requires one in order for there to “be” anything physically existent at all. So, although relativity says nothing about what life is or why life must be, it leads to an accurate description of nature that amazingly, by requiring life, ultimately does explain why there is life. Moreover, it leads to that explanation in the same way that the speed of light being constant surprisingly explains gravity (as we will discover in Chapter Seventeen). It all starts with relativity.

Understanding the simple principles underlying what is a truly monumental advancement in human understanding, and most importantly, recognizing that understanding these simple principles and the conclusions that they yield are within anyone’s conceptual grasp, can serve to remove the seeming distance that isolates common, widespread understanding of nature, from what is truly, at its heart, a single, fundamental idea. That single idea is that time is a dimension, no different in any way from space. This single conclusion that relativity reveals tells us an enormous amount about our universe, and, when combined with another model, the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, ultimately leads to explaining why life is essential for there to even be a universe anyway. (See the companion volume, The Infinite Pattern ).

Thus we are left with the reality that for explaining nature, even for explaining life, one must gain an understanding of relativity, because no understanding of nature can be complete, or, for that matter, ever make any kind of truly accurate statement about the properties of its space and time, without relativity. Quantum theory even requires relativity in order to accurately specify when or where. We can speak of many things independently of it, but to speak of nature's most fundamental principles, it cannot be excluded, being as fundamental as anything can be in describing nature. Relativity is the tool that is absolutely unsurpassed in performance for specifying the motion of big things within space and time in an accurate way, and most significantly, for understanding a very simple yet absolutely inescapable phenomenon that we experience everywhere always, called gravity; all of which being precisely what the Theory of Relativity does so impeccably well. Learning real science begins with learning relativity – just as making science interesting to everyone should begin by studying relativity’s richness first. This richness initiates a road to discovery that everyone should someday, somehow have a chance to actually behold within their lifetime.


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"Picture me* rollin'."
–Tupac Shakur, commenting on time’s passage, although surely in light of quantum
theory’s implications about life’s participation in the wave character of energy
  * - “me” refers to any living observer  (see companion volume)  

PROLOGUE

Science is the pursuit of what is true in nature. Theoretical physics is the greatest expression of science’s pursuit, as well as the most fundamental of its foundations. This means that theoretical physics identifies those explanations that are consistent with reality (that is, consistent with what is observed and never inconsistent with it), and distinguishes these explanations, those wholly consistent with observation, from any others that are not. Distinguishing these wholly consistent explanations from any and all others that are not – like those that our minds might imagine, for example, in the absence of scientific understanding, and that do not demonstrate themselves in nature in any kind of precise and predictably observable way – has led to our understanding of why what is true must be true, and why what is not true, can never be. More basically, it has led to explaining why everything is the way it is by uncovering the explanation of what life itself is and ultimately, explaining why life ‘is’ and must ‘be’, in order for there to be physical reality.

Most amazingly, the pursuit of truth in nature, again, science, has led to explaining why it is life – and nothing else – that is the fundamental nexus of physical existence. And again, to be perfectly clear, in discovering this, life’s role to physical existence, science has revealed irrefutably that life must ‘be’ for there to be any kind of reality at all, instead of there simply having never been anything existent anywhere, which would flatly be the case, in the absence of life. Moreover, science, specifically theoretical physics, can demonstrate this truth, experimentally (e.g. the two-slot experiment of quantum mechanics, see companion volume), wholly independent of any testimonial “proof,” which is something that simply no other body of ideas can do.

That is precisely what science does. By pursuing truth in nature, science identifies what is true in it, what is not, and most significantly, reveals why something is one and not the other; all the while, completely irrespective of what we or anyone else might hope, wish, believe, imagine, or conjecture to be true in nature instead; and for that matter, completely irrespective of what might even be determinable about what is. Genuine science, as the sincere pursuit of truth, is, above all, not influenced in any way by personal preference for what truth should be. Personal preference is excluded altogether from genuine science, in its sincere pursuit of natural truth. This is because history has repeatedly taught the lesson that absolute objectivity most often leads to conclusions consistent with what is observed, while personal preferences clearly lead elsewhere, but have certainly never purposefully led to any kind of truth that is reflected in actual phenomena. In contrast, theoretical physics, by excluding any and all personal preferences, has NEVER done anything but successfully identify natural truth. So, if flawless accuracy is indeed a valid reflection of nature’s truth, then such truth has nothing whatsoever at all to do with what we or anyone else want such truth to be, but instead, exists unto itself, independently of any and all personal preferences; that is, except of course, for a single, inescapable, personal preference alone, which is the preference for observing, or perhaps better stated, the preference for approaching the observation of natural truth, by imagining it accurately. Like nothing else, relativity provides the necessary starting point for achieving such observation, in a very simple way.

The magnificent performance of theoretical physics in accurately mirroring everything in nature, serves as the basis of its undeniable validity in specifying natural truth. Furthermore, absolutely no other model exists that even comes close in performance. The theoretical model is a description of nature that ALWAYS works, EVERY single time it is put to the test, regardless of how many times it is tested, and irrespective of how rigorous the test might be. To date, it has yet to ever log a single failure, even once. In a word, for what it claims to do, that is, describe the most fundamental truths of nature, it is completely error-free. Furthermore, there exists absolutely NOTHING that escapes its inclusion, meaning that theoretical physics describes EVERYTHING existent in nature, and there is nothing manifest in reality that it is not, albeit only in principle alone, capable of describing more accurately than any other way ever conceived.

Hence, any and all other descriptions of nature, scientific or otherwise, regardless of how seemingly removed from the theoretical model’s specification such a description might be, must either be consistent with the theoretical model, or, if not, then contradict its clearly demonstrable validity instead. Put another way, to contradict theoretical physics or its conclusions is to flatly contradict the most accurate description of nature that has ever existed and the only explanation that lacks ambiguity or paradox. For this reason, theoretical physics is the best means there is for predicting future events and for reconstructing past ones.

Thus, when a scientific proposition predicts a particular outcome arising from a particular initial state of events, and that outcome is observed to always be consistent with the prediction, then the proposition is presumed true (although subject to refinement should subsequent observations so infer). Such scientific proposition often involves quantitative measurements. Sophisticated quantitative measure and analysis ordinarily require substantial education. We, however, can circumvent this need by utilizing strictly qualitative measures instead, which, although requiring much less quantity of education, can be just as effective.

To wholly remove all quantitative measure and analysis from any overall description of nature is perhaps impossible. Even qualitative concepts cannot meaningfully describe nature without utilizing at least the most fundamental mathematical relationships (equal, not equal, greater than, less than, perpendicular, tilted, straight, curved) and minimally the simplest integer measures. This is unavoidable, but not overwhelming. The equations of physics themselves are just ‘formal’ (that is, mathematical) descriptions, reflecting deep fundamental concepts intrinsic to nature. And, although they may be wholly new and unfamiliar, requiring both time and effort to grasp, these concepts and their conclusions can be imagined independently of an understanding of any formal description (meaning independently of any and all mathematical notation).

Qualitative ‘measures’ are concepts in physics, both abstract and concrete. Qualitative concepts require much less training to understand than complex quantitative measures do. Nonetheless, these qualitative concepts yield their own conclusions. We can utilize their conclusions, which are ultimately measures too, if they agree with the established quantitative ones that explain nature’s ways so well (albeit purely in terms of quantities). When these qualitative conclusions are clearly consistent with their quantitative equivalents, we can use them to describe what is, according to our current understanding, genuinely true in the world. And, we can do so in terms of very tangible concepts, concepts that describe physical reality through easily imaginable ideas alone, and in terms of nothing whatsoever else, except easily imagined ideas, ideas that exist independently of any symbols that mathematics might associate with these ideas.

Behind each and every equation in physics lies an underlying concept, existing unto itself, wholly independently of any formal representation that we, or anyone, might associate with it. These important concepts can be described without their respective math and exclusively of any need for quantitative methods except the most basic. In other words, notwithstanding the necessity for a conceptual grasp of the appropriate abstract yet fundamentally simple concepts that underlie the math but require none, it is wholly possible for a lay person knowing no math whatsoever to come to understand, albeit in the most general of terms, theoretical physics, in amazing depth. Learning about relativity’s space and time is the starting point.

This book is the story of the theory of space and time, gravity, the Theory of Relativity, described in a very simple manner, without mathematical notation of any kind. Understanding relativity provides the first step toward seeing why the universe is the way it is, by describing its space, time, and motions, of ‘big’ things (bigger than an atom) lying within its space and time, better than any other body of ideas ever imagined. (The smallest things, like individual atoms or smaller, are accurately described by another theory, that for energy: the Theory of Quantum Mechanics; besides gravity, there is only energy.) The chapters that follow will explain how relativity is a most natural (that is to say, inescapable) property of a real, meaningfully coherent (in terms of cause and effect, for example) and logically consistent universe, as is the one in which we live. The inseparability of space and time and the relativity of space and time measures that is its consequence emerge, as a most naturally occurring “miracle,” that happens independently of anything or anyone “making” it happen. This is the all-encompassing miracle occurring everywhere always that we call existence. Nothing in nature was created, but happened, through very natural means, inescapably and unavoidably.

The story of Relativity is an adventure in thought and a fundamental milestone in any genuine pursuit of truth; that is, a pursuit lacking any preconceived prejudice about what truth must be. This part of truth’s description, space and time (gravity), will introduce the reader to what is very likely a completely new way for imagining the universe, and a completely new means for imagining the time and space that a universe so very much seems to require. Relativity demonstrates how time is absolutely inseparable from space, how tics on a clock are no different in the least from gradients on a ruler, and thus how time is exactly the same thing that space is, despite how different each may so convincingly seem to be from the other.

Without an accurate understanding of nature’s foundations, we are left only with conventional beliefs and little more, because without predictable demonstrability (science), what else do we have except belief, and it alone? However, for the sake of genuinely understanding nature, meaning understanding nature in a way which is precisely predictable and demonstrable, we are required to ‘believe’ nothing, because we can ‘know’ instead, utilizing critical thinking, in light of the irrefutable facts of science’s rigorously tested explanations. Using science, we can verify whether something is true, because we can physically test whether it is not! Yes, the Theory of Relativity, just like any other part of theoretical physics, can be tested (although some frontiers in science still await appropriate technology). That is, you can demonstrate relativity’s truth, by means of the apparent impossibility of ever disproving it. No one yet has even come close to doing so.

As a matter of historical fact, science has put relativity to many, many, many tests: all of them trying to prove it incorrect. Irrefutably, the Theory of Relativity has NEVER once failed ANY test that it has ever been subjected to – not a single one. To date, it is error free! This makes it and its explanation of ‘why’ as true as anything in the universe can be, because no one has yet ever successfully demonstrated, or better stated, no one has yet ever even come close to successfully demonstrating, its incorrectness – again, not even once! Irrefutably, this leaves relativity as the best mirroring of space and time that has ever existed, because it so clearly surpasses in accuracy any and all other descriptions ever proposed, without exception.

What is most impressive about theoretical physics, especially relativity, is that absolutely anyone who can read, count, and imagine a concept called “perpendicular” can eventually come to understand this failure-free body of ideas that describes nature better than any others that have ever existed, without ever learning any math (just some simple geometry). Even though a very concentrated effort must be made, it takes far more time and motivation than intellect to learn physical theory. To be perfectly clear, anyone at all with an imagination coupled with a genuine desire to understand nature truthfully (BOTH are required) can eventually grasp theoretical physics conceptually...
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.
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Ultimately, ALL working science is based upon either relativity or its counterpart, quantum mechanics. Together, these two explanations describe nature more accurately than any and all others that have ever existed. None before have even come close to the performance of these two marvels of human achievement. They are, to say the least, a great legacy for humankind, perhaps someday serving its very survival.

This book explains the first of these two great human achievements, because understanding the first of these magnificent models, the Theory of Relativity, is a necessary prerequisite for then understanding the second, the Theory of Quantum Mechanics. The Theory of Quantum Mechanics takes up where relativity leaves off, by describing everything lying within relativity’s time and space, namely energy, which is everything physically existent that isn’t gravity (again, isn’t space and time), like light (radiation) and matter.

If enough people take the couple of months normally necessary to fully grasp theoretical physics’ essentials, albeit only conceptually, then they have the capacity for impacting entire societies and can even change history itself, no less than the harnessing of fire or the invention of language did the same for human culture. Understanding theoretical physics is just as much within one’s intellectual reach, as understanding fire and language are, and like each, can be enlightening as few other insights in our development have ever been or can ever be. Theoretical physics stands at the apex of evolutionary achievement and quite possibly may provide the only hope for preserving complex life on Earth should technology be the only means to prevent or postpone its extinction. The long history of the planet as well as numerous recent astronomical and geological revelations demonstrate that such a catastrophe is an inevitable certainty, even as soon as in the very near future. The more widespread the understanding of science, the better humankind will be equipped to face the challenges that confront us. Widespread understanding by the human community starts first with widespread understanding by each individual in that community: you.


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"Change can take years, and in some cases, eons;
or, it can happen in a moment."

Chapter Zero

THE ORIGINAL THEORY OF UNIVERSAL AND ABSOLUTE, SPACE AND TIME MEASURES

"Space seems absolute and universal, everywhere always, at any distance, anywhere. That is, no measurement of any distance ever seems to change, under any circumstance. Regardless of the units that are used to measure the distance, once this number of units is determined, it does not seem to ever change, regardless of anything, and presumably, irrespective of any motion involved. Likewise, so seem any measurements involving a combination of distances, such as those for surface areas or spatial volumes for example. Angles established by these distances seem never to change, either. In stating that measures of distances and the angles that these distances establish seem absolute, what is really being stated is that space itself seems absolute. And, just as seems the case for distances and angles, temporal intervals, that is to say, time, seems also to pass at the same seemingly absolute rate, always, everywhere, under any circumstance whatsoever, regardless altogether of anything. No clock ever runs faster or slower, under any circumstances, ever, does it not? Any accurate clock seems to run at the same rate as any other, regardless of anything or any motion; a minute is a minute anywhere, always, under any circumstance. Is all this not true, again, always?

"Another seemingly obvious fact is that although each clearly seems universal and absolute, time and space clearly seem also wholly “unalike,” meaning that each is physically distinct from the other. Space can be navigated at will, locally, in any direction, while time cannot, in any way. Time has only a single direction alone: into the future. Its march is unstoppable and moreover, absolutely inescapable. This means that we simply cannot help but be continually removed from the past: it always lies behind our present moment; and, in like fashion, continually removed from the future: it always lies ahead of the present moment. Both past and future lie beyond our reach, with the present moment confining the temporal extent of our existence to a perpetual progression of fleeting present moments that, in series, constitute our lives. Reality is accessible in no way other than our immediate moment-by-moment recollections and contemplations of it, even with respect to our recording of events). All this is clearly obvious to anyone, and a flatly indisputable fact about reality, is it not? Furthermore, what is true for us here now must be true, at any time, anywhere, must it not?

"Naturally, it seems obvious that the past and future that correspond to the earth correspond also to the moon and sun, just as this seemingly absolute distinction applies identically to the solar system, and likewise to nearby stars. Extending this idea further, we realize that this seems true for the entire universe, at any distance, not matter how far. That is to say, that it must be the same time everywhere, because what exactly would it mean for it not to be? How? It not being the same time everywhere seems unimaginable. Not knowing, we might mistakenly think that so imagining lies outside of our intellectual reach, without realizing that we would be wholly incorrect in thinking so. This mistaken image of universal absoluteness (along with any presumed limits upon our ability to imagine more) is best expressed as “the theory of absolute space and absolute time (measures).” It is a model we surely cannot even remember acquiring, much less how, or why; and, unless we learn differently (one way: by reading the content), it is a model that we retain for our entire lives mistakenly believing that it accurately embodies the way that nature really works. Grasping relativity can correct this misunderstanding by replacing it with an understanding that corresponds perfectly to how nature, in actual, physical fact, truly does work. The remaining chapters stand wholly dedicated to bringing the reader who is willing enough to take the time and make the intellectual effort necessary for gaining this understanding, to that very understanding itself."


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