Last night I went out drinking with Ericka and Jim. Along our travels to the bars some how we got into a discussion on Einstein’s theory of relativity and Star Trek. Ericka wanted to know how all of this relativity shit works and I could only remember the basics, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet I looked it up. This next bit is from Dave’s relativity page. And I took it all from him.

Time Dilation
The effect called time dilation is similar to length contraction, and it works like this:

The time between two events, in a frame in which those events occur at different locations, is longer than the time between those same two events, in a frame in which those events occur at the same location.

This one’s a bit more confusing. Again, I’ll try to illustrate.

Either of these clocks can be used to measure the time it takes the first clock to travel from point A to point B. However, the two clocks will give different results. We can think of it this way. The two events we’re talking about are the clock leaving point A, and the clock arriving at point B. In our frame, these events take place at different points (A and B). However, let’s look at this from the reference frame of the upper clock. From this point of view, the upper clock is at rest (anything is at rest from its own point of view) and the bar containing the points A and B is rushing by from right to left. So the two events, the departure of point A and the arrival of point B both take place at the same point: the point where the clock sits! (The time measured by the upper clock is called the “proper time”.) By the principle stated above, the lower clock will register a longer time than the upper clock as the upper clock moves from point A to point B.

A simpler, less precise way of stating this principle is:

A moving clock runs more slowly than a stationary clock.

The most famous hypothetical illustration of time dilation is usually called the twin paradox. Suppose there are twins named Harry and Mary. Mary takes off in a spaceship which travels very fast away from earth (it must travel close to the speed of light for the effect to be noticeable) and returns very fast. We can think of the human body as a clock which records the passage of time by aging. Since Mary is moving very fast, her clock runs slowly, compared to Harry’s clock. As a result, when Mary arrives back at earth she has aged less than Harry has. How much less depends on how far she has traveled, and how fast.

Time dilation is not just a crazy idea. It has been verified experimentally. Perhaps the best example of this involves a subatomic particle called a muon. The muon is an unstable particle, which means that shortly after one is created, it decays into lighter particles. How long a muon takes to decay has been measured very precisely. Anyway, it’s been observed that a muon moving close to the speed of light lives longer than a muon that’s at rest or moving slowly. This is a relativistic effect. From the point of view of the moving muon it doesn’t live any longer, because from its point of view, it’s at rest. It’s only in the frame of the laboratory through which the muon moves that the lifetime is lengthened, or “dilated”.

I should add at this point that there are many, many other tests of the ideas we’ve seen so far, and of the other implications of relativity that we’ll see later. My point is, even though it’s still often referred to as the “theory” of relativity, don’t think that this implies that special relativity is in doubt. It’s very well established.

I hope that made sense, because I don’t want to have to explain this again. There will be a test later so you all better read that shit up top.

Here’s A real quick one. Happy birthday Ericka.

A few things, If anyone cares I updating under the influence again. Yes my vast readership I’m drunk as a skunk. If this doesn’t get some word of mouth extra hits, then I fucking give up.

Not enough of you bastards have been checking out this page, hence the reason it first pops up now. By the way if your keeping track I’m on my fifth beer.

Also, lately I feel I’ve held back because of the F&B reading this page. Hey John if you still look at this shit drop me a line!

On Sunday the 16th Sarah from the front desk was in a car crash. She is doing better now, but it was serious enough of an injury. She had internal bleeding and she ruptured her spleen. Not being a doctor that sounded pretty bad to me. The doctors even were talking about how they might not be able to save her spleen. In the end the doctor did save it.

The whole thing has weirded me out. The last time I saw Sarah prior to the accident we were discussing Hamlet. I lately haven’t been able to get the line “alas poor Yorick. I knew him well Horitio”. Which is about death. The whole fucking play is about death. Sarah responded to me by reciting the beginning of the “to be or not to be speech”, again about death. So I just thought it was weird. maybe its just me.

That was the bad news. The good news is that I got to meet all of Sarah’s family. Lets see we got her mom Terry. Dad Jon and stepmom Tina. then their is sister Jenny and her boyfriend Nate. Oh yeah I forgot about Bob. They are all interesting people. Funny bunch.

Sarah will be in the hospital for about a week. Then she has to be off for six to eight weeks. She will pull through. Me and the other Chris(who I’ve decided is now dubbed Kansas. to avoid confusion) call her Atilla, as in Atilla the Hun. I would like to claim credit, but it was Kansas’s idea.

Nanno Nanno. Greetings Earthlings. I come in peace. Sorry, I have had one to many beers all ready this morning and am feeling goofy. Just kidding. I received a letter from a certain employee today that I had to put up. Go check it out at Two Cents a new section for other people to speak their mind. And any one who wants their two cents just e-mail me their piece and I will put it on that page.

Thats another thing I’ve been meaning to comment on. Its not often a guy can talk Shakespeare with someone who works at the hotel. But it happened last night. And I have been meaning to mention these two any way. I think its been long enough that one can comment on these two and not know. Ericka and Scott.

Ericka and Scott are two very interesting people. And I am honoured to call them friends, beer makes me sentimental. When I say this I don’t mean there are not others that do also. Lets start with Scott. This is a guy who with out a doubt proves chivalry is not dead. At first I just thought of Scott as just an okay guy. But later when his courting of Ericka came out in the open I saw him in a whole new light.

This is what made me change my opinion on him. Ericka has had a few problems with the men in her life, that is the ones I know are assholes. She had gone out with this ignorant brute named Wade. Wade as in wade through the grass, wade through the snow, etc. etc. etc. Well this guy has found out what a good thing he’s lost so he keeps on harassing her. Kinda of a big guy, too. So this one time Scott had called Ericka up on the phone and he could tell that she was having a hard time with Wade. So what does this guy do? Did I mention Wade had another Cro-Magnon there with him? Scott decides he’s driving over there to see if Ericka’s okay. Scott gets there and is greeted by these two fucks. they basically tell him to butt out and to leave. Well Scott is ready to take both of these goons on because he sees that their putting Ericka through some shit. Did I mention Scott is a small guy? Wade and the other fucko end up throwing Scott out of Ericka’s place. Literally throw him down the stairs. So Scott left and did the only natural thing, he went and got reinforcements. Scott is a hell of a guy. And he knows his Shakespeare.

What can I say about Ericka without sounding a little jealous of Scott? She is a great person. She’s smart and Downright cool. And if there was any specific type of women I was attracted to it would be women like Ericka. I think thats all I need to say. That And I shouldn’t update the site while drinking.

Fuck, look out world the Sobos are on the net. That is a scary thought. Bradley a nice kid I know because of Troy had come over and was telling about the Sobos on the net. Bradley has a page called the South Beloit Student Pages.

Then we have a page that the teachers did. I had to laugh because the calendar of events page was last updated in February. And I’m not even that bad.

Finally we have a page done by an Alumni before my time. That has to do with reunions and alumni. I thought it was funny not to many of my classmates have seen this page. I guess not to many of them are computer literate.