Tag Archives: cosmic ray muons

Relativity mania

To make you realize how relativists misinterpret experimental data to support their superstitious belief of time dilation, first I let you solve one puzzle and then present you how relativists would solve the same.

Imagine that a team of scientists have discovered a special animal species on Earth. After carefully studying the species, they found that the members of the species as soon as they are born go on flying at a constant speed of 1000km/day until they die exactly after 10days. The scientists, having noted their speed and their lifespan, rightly concluded that the species will travel a total distance of 10,000km (ten thousand kilometers) in their life time.

Then came the biggest challenge for the scientists- they have discovered an identical species coming from Heaven to Earth. They have all the experimental evidence to believe that these species soon after taking birth in Heaven head straight to Earth and die as soon as they reach our ‘deadly’ Planet. Also our scientists very well know that the distance between the heaven and the earth is 100,000km (hundred thousand kilometers).

Here is the puzzle for you to solve. We were told by our great scientists that the members of the above species can only travel a total distance of 10,000km (ten thousand kilometers) in their life time considering their travel speed of 1000km/day and life span of 10days. But how come the members from heaven were able to travel 100,000km (hundred thousand kilometers) and reach our deadly planet? This is 10 times more than the distance that is normally possible for the species to travel in their lifetime. How can we explain this odd observation?

To make things easier I will give you 3 options to select from-

  1. Heavenly species travel faster than the earthly species
  2. Heavenly species live longer than the earthly species
  3. Both heavenly species and earthly species travel at the same speed and live for the same number of days, but the heavenly species experience time dilation i.e. time runs slower for them because they are moving at very high velocity i.e 1000km/day

I am sure people with commonsense go with the first two options – our scientists have only noted the travelling speed and life span of the earthly species. Obviously the same parameters can’t be blindly extrapolated to the heavenly species. Even though both ‘earthly’ and ‘heavenly’ members belong to the same species and look identical, the speed and life span of the ‘earthly’ species can’t be said to be true for the ‘heavenly’ species having seen them travel a much longer distance than their ‘earthly’ cousins. This implies that either the ‘heavenly’ species must be traveling faster and/ or they must be living longer than their ‘earthly’ cousins. I don’t see any great difficulty or logical obstruction to make such conclusion.

But let me present you how relativists would solve the puzzle- they swear that both ‘earthly’ and ‘heavenly’ species travel with the same speed and live for the same number of days because they both are identical and belong to the same species. So they don’t agree with options 1 and 2 and rather go to option 3 and insist that the ‘heavenly’ species experience time dilation because of their high velocity and hence are able to travel the much longer distance noted.

Now Let me explain their delusion of time dilation- relativists believe that time ‘dilates’ or runs slower for fast moving objects. So what is one day for somebody moving slower may just be 1hr for someone travelling at a very high speed on a spaceship. So they argue that because the heavenly members travel at a very high velocity (don’t ask with reference to whom), they experience time dilation i.e. time runs slower or clocks tick slower for them. So even though they live for only 10days, each day is stretched or longer for them and hence they are able to travel a longer distance each day. “That’s how the ‘heavenly’ species are able to cover the much longer distance of 100,000km between the heaven and earth” relativists declare.

Anybody with least commonsense will surely ask them “if both heavenly species and earthly species travel at the same velocity, why not the earthly species experience the same weird phenomenon of time dilation and travel the same long distance as their heavenly cousins?”.

Well, don’t think that the relativists will have no answer for this question- we just have to be prepared for more stupid explanations. The more you question them the more stupid they speak. The more stupid they speak, the more difficult it becomes to keep arguing with them. So we will surely give up arguing with them at some point – the stupid flock ‘wins’ at the end.

Believe me, I haven’t at all exaggerated about their weird thinking- that’s exactly how they prove time dilation with their cosmic muon decay observations.

But how come scientists go so stupid while interpreting such simple and straight forward observations and draw weird conclusions out of them? Well, that is because they are affected by a disorder called ‘Relativity mania’ and those affected by this mania hold delusional beliefs like- speed of light is constant, time dilates for fast moving things, space gets warped near heavier objects and so on. Because of their delusional preoccupation, they ‘interpret’ every experiment as strong proof of their delusional beliefs.

Layman and a Scientist

Layman: In the light of the observations on cosmic ray muons, why don’t we believe that muons could travel at 8×109 meters/sec having observed them travel 16000meters in 2 microseconds?

Scientist: because that exceeds the speed of light

Layman: then what?

Scientist: Special relativity (SR) prohibits speeds faster than light which is 3×108meters/sec.

Layman: on what grounds?

Scientist: From the law of constant speed of light

Layman: What is that?

Scientist: Speed of light is constant to all observers i.e light always travels at velocity ‘c’ i.e. 3×108meters/sec with reference to all observers irrespective of their own motion. A ‘stationary’ observer, a fast moving electron or the cosmic ray muon, all ‘measure’ the same speed of light.

Layman: how weird!

Scientist: Yes, it is weird but proven by many experiments including the muon’s time dilation.

Layman: ???

Scientist: So if light travels at speed ‘c’ with reference to the cosmic ray muon, how can the latter travel faster than light? Obviously it can’t. If at all something (e.g. cosmic ray muon) appears to travel faster than light, it is just an illusion. What actually happens there is time dilation and space contraction in muon’s reference frame. Obviously we can’t appreciate this in our reference frame.

Layman: Why should we believe in time dilation which we can’t appreciate, and ignore what we actually appreciate?

Scientist: Because that’s what is exactly predicted by the theory of special relativity.

Layman: Pardon me sir; but muon’s time dilation is a prediction or a proof of special relativity?

Scientist: The problem is you neither understand the mathematics nor the reference frames. Though the muon appears to travel 16000 meters in 2 microseconds, it is impossible according to special relativity and the law of constant speed of light. What actually happens is time dilation and space contraction in muon’s reference frame. So this muon’s time dilation proves special relativity.

Layman: I am feeling dizzy; it appears to me that we are going round and round. That could be my ignorance. May be muon’s time dilation is in fact true and possibly proves special relativity!

Scientist: Of course, numerous experiments have proven special relativity beyond doubt.

Layman: Now I am getting the gist of relativity. Everything in relativity is counterintuitive, isn’t it?

Scientist: Well, you are right but there is a lot more to go through before you can even dream of understanding relativity. Even I didn’t believe in it initially, but having seen the vast support and evidence, I had no choice but to accept it. And over the course of time, as I thoroughly understood the theory and the maths, I got converted and became a believer of relativity.

Layman: So, cosmic ray muons prove time dilation because nothing can travel faster than light. Is there an equally strong proof for the idea of constant speed of light?

Scientist: Well, plenty. Neutral pion decay and Michelson-Morley experiments are among the top. The former proves that the photon’s velocity is unaffected by that of the source. The latter proves many aspects of SR, but as a layman it will be too much for you to grasp.

Layman: I accept my ignorance. May be you can tell me about the pion’s story.

Scientist: You know, the velocity of a stone thrown out of a moving train depends upon the train’s velocity. That is, the velocity of any projectile/ emitted body depends upon the velocity of the source/ emitter.

Layman: Of course!

Scientist: But that’s not the case with light photons. We know velocity of light is ‘c’. Neutral pions are fundamental particles with a high velocity and emit photons as they decay.  If the neutral pion’s velocity is ‘x’, we would expect the emitted photons to move at speed ‘c+x’. But the photons were noted to travel at just ‘c’ in an experiment studying the decay of neutral pions. This proved beyond doubt that velocity of light is indeed constant and unaffected by that of the source.

Layman: Well, the speed of an engine (photon) obviously doesn’t depend upon the vehicle (pion) it was driving.

Scientist: What do you mean?

Layman: If the lone speed of a rail engine is 100kmph, this remains the same even when the engine gets detached from the moving train it was driving.

Imagine a horse which runs at 50kmph when free of load. Also imagine that this horse is pulling a cart at 40kmph. If the horse gets ‘released’ from this moving cart, it will only run at its original speed of 50kmph and not at 50+40kmph.

So like SOL, the speed of a horse and the speed of a rail engine are also constant!

Scientist: Neutral pion decay was a real observation which proved that the speed of light is constant. You are equating a real experiment and published evidence with your imaginary and silly experiments on bullock carts and rail engines.

Layman: I am only…

Scientist: You can’t make wild propositions without published evidence from peer reviewed journals and strong mathematics.

Layman: Sorry sir, I didn’t mean to dishonour science. I am just thinking that photons may be behaving just like horses and rail engines for the particles in the quantum world. If so, then we don’t need the weird law of constant speed of light to explain the observations on neutral pion decay!

Scientist: But that’s not what special relativity (SR) predicts.

Layman: I am again feeling giddy. I am not able to appreciate whether something is a logical conclusion, a proof or a prediction.

Scientist: Well, don’t forget that relativity is counterintuitive, so commonsense obviously fails. The problem is you don’t understand the maths. We the scientists are not fools to believe in relativity if this was wrong.

Layman: I realise that we the lay people shouldn’t try to understand Relativity but religiously believe in what the great scientists like you preach. Thank you sir.

(So we must not believe in what we have observed because that is simply prohibited by some weird theory. And we should believe in the weird phenomenon of time dilation, though we haven’t observed – because that is what is proposed by SR. Note the awkward logic here- Special relativity proposes time dilation. Time dilation then proves special relativity!!!

Dear ‘unscientific’ and ‘uneducated’ lay minds, read the full ‘stories’ of the cosmic ray muons and the neutral pions to realise how ‘intelligent’ are our great physicists)

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