It's Labor Day -- at least in the US -- and it's time to take a break. So let's go back in time -- in 1938 exactly -- with Albert Einstein as our guide.
Here is the abstract of "On the Effects of External Sensory Input on Time Dilation," published by the Journal of Exothermic Science and Technology -- JEST for short (I'm sure you're awake by now.)
When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.
Wait, there is more. Here comes the Discussion part.
I took the train to New York City to meet with Miss [movie star Paulette]Goddard at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal. She was radiant and delightful. When it felt to me as if a minute had passed, I checked my watch to discover that a full 57 minutes had actually transpired, which I rounded up to one hour. Upon returning to my home, I plugged in the waffle iron and allowed it to heat up. I then sat on it, wearing trousers and a long white shirt, untucked. When it seemed that over an hour had gone by, I stood up and checked my watch to discover that less than one second had in fact passed. To maintain unit consistency for the descriptions of the two circumstances, I rounded up to one minute, after which I called a physician.
Einstein was a great thinker in 1938. Here is how is explains what is wireless communication.
The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.
Now, I have a question for you. If Scientific American publishes April Fool's Day jokes in August, do we live in a normal world? Are you sure it's Labor Day?
Source: Steve Mirsky, Scientific American, September 2002 Issue (Posted on AUgust 12, 2002)
5:36:43 PM
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