Relativity of Simultaneity

    The relativity of simultaneity refers to the events that happen at the same time, also occur at different times from a moving perspective. In other words, events that occurred at the same place or time, become out of sequence when you look at if from a moving perspective. In Norton's first article, Special Relativity: Relativity of Simultaneity, an example is put into our frame of mind when we put someone on a long platform with endpoints A and B. In the first example, when the conductor of the experiment stands on the platform still and a light flashes from both points, it will reach the observer at the same time. Now what were to happen if we put an observer on a moving platform? Since our observer has a different midpoint, it is no longer synchronized since the points will now take longer to reach the observer. 
    What the relativity of simultaneity is not is what he calls the appearance of simultaneity, which Norton explains accounts for the discrepancies in our perception through our senses before the relativity of simultaneity. In this way, it acts as a "filter," and the relativity of simultaneity is what is able to pass through that filter and the oddities that arise in our perception of time. An example of this filter is his example of thunder and lightning, where we know they occur at the same time from our background knowledge, but the lightning appears to happen first because it has a quicker velocity than sound so it reaches us first. 
    In my own opinion, I take into account that time is not real in essence to the relativity of simultaneity. Relating back to the idea of thunder and lighting, even though we may not see or hear the occurrence at the same time, we know that they did in fact occur simultaneously.

Comments

  1. Bryan BartnickOctober 12, 2020 at 1:02 PM

    Hi Matt, I really liked your points and how you were able to use the text to shape your opinion. My question is whether you feel like a planet being millions of light years away, and therefore our perception of the events going on in that planet, fall under the relativity of simultaneity or appearance of simultaneity? Do we "filter" this through our knowledge, or does it result and pass through our filter?

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    Replies
    1. Matt BushnellOctober 12, 2020 at 1:09 PM

      Thanks for your response Bryan! I believe our perception falls under the appearance because it relates and filters to our own sensations and knowledge.

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