Nothing odd about dilation and contraction when you know its cause. But what is odd is the fact that each frame sees the result differently -- that the car fits in one frame, but not in the other -- and you see nothing odd about that, that there's no objective reality despite the symmetry. AG
The facts are events in spacetime. There's an event F at which the front of the car is even with the exit of the garage and there's an event R at which the rear of the car is even with the entrance to the garage. If R is before F we say the car fitted in the garage. If R is after F we say the car did not fit. But if F and R are spacelike, then there is no fact of the matter about their time order. The time order will depend on the state of motion.
Brent -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/1ae022c9-1dae-451e-9ad4-6fcf9370136f%40gmail.com.
