English prose literature; Exposition (Rhetoric); Readers -- Science
In the first case, with our sense perceptions 100,000 times faster, all
events in nature would appear to us 100,000 times slower. This would
then be a stationary and immovable world. The only motion which we could
see with our eyes would be that of the cannon ball, which would crawl
slowly along, at less than a snail's pace. The express train going at
sixty miles per hour would appear to stand still, and deliberate
experiment be required to discover its motion. By noting its position on
the track, and noting it again after a period of time as long as five
minutes appears to us now, we should find its position changed by three
inches. It would be a dangerous world, as there would be many
objects--not distinguishable to the senses from other harmless
objects--contact with which would be dangerous, even fatal; and one and
the same object (as the express train) might sometimes be harmless (when
at rest), sometimes dangerous (when in motion), without our senses being
able to see any difference.
On the other hand, with our sense perceptions 100,000 times slower, all
events in nature would appear to us to occur 100,000 times faster. There
would be little rest in nature, and we should see plants, and even
stones, move. We should observe, in a period of time not longer than a
minute or two appear to us now, a plant start from seed, grow up,
flower, bring fruit, and die. Sun and moon would be luminous bands
traversing the sky; day and night alternate seconds of light and
darkness. Much of nature, all moving things, would be invisible to us.
If I moved my arm, it would disappear, to reappear again when I held it
still. It would be a usual occurrence to have somebody suddenly appear
and just as suddenly disappear from our midst, or to see only a part of
a body. The vanishing and the appearance of objects would be common
occurrences in nature; and we should speak of "vanishing" and
"appearing," instead of "moving" and "stopping." Collisions, usually
harmless, with invisible objects would be common occurrences.
As seen, nature and its laws would appear to us very different from what
we find them now, with our present time perception.
Thus philosophy, mathematics, and physical science agree that space and
time cannot be entities, but are conceptions of the human mind in its
relation to nature. But what does this mean, and what conclusions follow
from it?
The space of our conception is three-dimensional--that is, extended in
three directions. For instance, the north-south direction, the east-west
direction, and the up-down direction. Any place or "point" in space thus
is located, relative to some other point, by giving its three distances
from the latter, in three (arbitrarily chosen) directions.
Time has only one dimension--that is, extends in one direction only,
from the past to the future--and a moment or "point" in time thus is
located, with reference to another point in time, by one time distance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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