1. Scientific Theories and Laws
2. The First Decade (1936-1946)
4. The Second Decade (1946-1956)
6. The Third Decade (1956-1966)
8. The Fourth Decade (1966-1976)
10. The Fifth Decade (1976-1986)
12. The Sixth Decade (1986-1996)
14. The Seventh Decade (1996-2006)
15. The Theory of More than Everything
16. The Eighth Decade (2006-2016)
18. The Ninth Decade (2016-2026)
Appendix A Paintings
Appendix B TTOMTE and a Steady State Universe
Appendix C Musical Compositions
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A rider on the elevator will measure the beam at the proper speed by his clock too. Our clocks are standing still relative to each other, so they are running the same speed.
Now take the elevator on the right. We measure the speed of light from A to B and back to A with the light beam starting out at the lower A position. The drawing shows where B will be by the time the light gets to it. The higher A represents where A will be by the time the light gets reflected back. Therefore, the light travels farther and will take longer from where we're standing. We still get the right speed measured on our clock.
To the rider, the distance is the same, straight across his elevator. Can his clock be right? Yes, it's running perfectly, but compared to our clock, his must run slower because his light beam didn't have to go as far as the way we saw it. If we send a light beam across our elevator, he will figure our clocks are slower. The effect always works both ways.
Time gets goofy because we don't measure the distance the light travels as the same. He might measure the elevator as eight feet wide, and the light went sixteen feet. We see the light had to travel perhaps seventeen feet. He's traveling with the light, but we're not.
Of course, we can't actually measure any of this which is why we use thought experiments. If you want to, think of the elevator as 186,000 miles wide; then we can measure the light. But we didn't include such an elevator in the NASA budget.
Einstein even concluded that time will stand still for a person riding on a beam of light.
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