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*Okay, the author of a book I've been reading gives an analogy of a particle (referred to in the analogy as a "person")...which I think could be turned into a riddle. Of course I could likely be wasting my time typing this out, as someone smarter than I will likely guess it >pronto<. I doubt I could have guessed correctly. Will give the author's name and book title later (to reduce the risk of someone having the book and looking up the answer...sorry).
Here goes (I'm -not- quoting the book directly, just rephrasing it):
A person travels crosstown for 3 light-microseconds (i.e., 3 blocks) and uptown for 3 microseconds. He was born at the beginning of his brief journey and dies at its finish.
As 3 microseconds are a distance in imaginary space, what is to be said of this person? He was observed to live for 3 microseconds and to travel 3 light-microseconds.
But from his own standpoint, he didn't live at all (okay, this part really has me :hm: ). Going on...
This person existed in zero-time (the hypotenuse of the spacetime triangle -- I can reproduce that here, if anyone asks).
Did this person actually exist or not? Could there be a particle which behaves in this manner?
According to relativity he didn't go anywhere either, since according to his own reckoning he spent no time.
-*-
What is the particle this analogy refers to?
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Sort of like a snow globe that has been shaken and then layed to rest. Was the snow ever floating?
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EDIT :: *REMOVED*
Eh, whooops. I thought you were asking a question about the riddle. I don't want to spoil the answer yet
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Hmm...
It's either a photon moving in a Minkowski spacetime, or someone like me trying to get to work in the morning.
Not really sure which...
"We go big, or we don't go." - GCNRevenger
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