- #1
mucker
- 60
- 17
Hi All,
I've been doing some reading on the above but having some problems understanding certain parts of it (maybe it's wrong from Wikipedia!) To simplify it for me I will first pose a simple scenario where we are not factoring in speed yet, then go from there.
Say we have two planets A and B and observer A. These planets are exactly 1ly from observer A and explode. Observer A will see and therefore conclude they exploded at the same time. Now let's say observer B is in a position so that he is 1ly away from planet A but 2ly away from planet B. He will observe that plant A exploded first.
My question is, if observer B is a physicist (and therefore is aware that light takes longer to reach him from planet B), and were to document these events, would he record them as how he observed them (not at the same time) or would he record them as happening at the same time (by factoring in the his distance from them)? In other words when we record/talk about simultaneous events (in the scientific sense) do we base it on what we observe, or what we conclude?
More questions to come soon when factoring in speed.
Thanks,
I've been doing some reading on the above but having some problems understanding certain parts of it (maybe it's wrong from Wikipedia!) To simplify it for me I will first pose a simple scenario where we are not factoring in speed yet, then go from there.
Say we have two planets A and B and observer A. These planets are exactly 1ly from observer A and explode. Observer A will see and therefore conclude they exploded at the same time. Now let's say observer B is in a position so that he is 1ly away from planet A but 2ly away from planet B. He will observe that plant A exploded first.
My question is, if observer B is a physicist (and therefore is aware that light takes longer to reach him from planet B), and were to document these events, would he record them as how he observed them (not at the same time) or would he record them as happening at the same time (by factoring in the his distance from them)? In other words when we record/talk about simultaneous events (in the scientific sense) do we base it on what we observe, or what we conclude?
More questions to come soon when factoring in speed.
Thanks,