(November 6, 2014 at 2:35 pm)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: how it is that light can be used to measure the age of the Universe if the speed at which it travels eliminates any passage of time (in reference to the point-of-view of the photon).Only the photon experience no passage of time. From the photons perspective, it has traveled 0 distance at 0 velocity for 0 time. To any other non-speed-of-light observer, the photon travels a non-zero distance at velocity c for a non-zero time. This sounds very wierd because traveling at the maximum speed limit of the universe is like doing math with infinities (and techically you are). It can be done, but it's really hard to have any intuitive sense about what is going on.
I still have problems conceptualizing relativity's predictions. However, you can't argue with results.
Quote:When we speak of the passage of time and distance, per the theory of relativity, are we only speaking in terms of reference to ourselves? That is, is it correct to say that for us as observers, on "our clocks," the Universe is such and such an age, but that on other reference points, it could be different? Is the same true for distances?Yes, the same is true of distance. A common special relativity problem ask's what is the distance between Earth and alpha centauri if you were traveling at 0.9c. The answer is not ~4 light years but ~1.8 light years. This is why you shouldn't think of time and space being two different things. They are interdependent and should be considered as one thing, spacetime.
Quote: In other words, does the relativity principle eliminate what may otherwise have seemed to be the sure falsification of (classically conceived) contradictory statements since the truth about an event can only be measured from a particular vantage point, and that among a plurality of positions moving through spacetime each is entitled to a correct but different interpretation of said event, relative to themselves?Not necessarily. You can still have events that no matter what reference frame you look at, the order of the two events would not change.
Quote:Does it falsify "objectivity" in regards to the age of the Universe, as that seems to only be true per our level of description, given our state of motion, but not necessarily from a person, say, hypothetically standing on the edge of a black hole's event horizon?No.
