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Originally Posted by Kristophe
Why is it that when someone asks a question that they don't have sufficient background to understand the answer to, they get upset and blame the person who answers?
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Who's upset? I'm not upset.
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I don't think the sarcasm and outright rudeness ("apparent 'cleverness'"? You haven't taken the time to even look into what the phrases might mean, and you're mocking people? Get real!) is called for. You'll catch more flies with honey, after all.
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Yo, if you object to what you perceive as "sarcasm" and "outright rudeness" in my post, don't you think it ironic to use the same measures back at me? LOL...!
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It's simple calculus. Why do you consider it to be convoluted? It's downright straight forward if you know the mathematic principles starting out. It's only "convoluted" when someone who doesn't bother to take the time to understand it passes it off as unimportant.
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That's right, I'm no mathematician. 3-year B.A., but no formal maths training. Sorry! I suppose that disqualifies me from your special club.
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The concept was explained in easy to understand language. Tim threw in a couple of technical terms (Coordinate and Proper times), but they were merely bonus material. You can replace the phrase "coordinate time" with "time affected by gravity" and "proper time" with "time not affected by gravity" and the answer comes out the same: Cosmologists report the age of the universe using the gravity independent time.
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Still gobbledy-gook, I'm afraid!
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It seems to me like you want simple answer to complicated questions. I suggest grade school. The kind where they explain the northern lights as "light reflected off of glaciers".
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Not necessarily "simple" answers, but answers in layman's terms. No maths, no esoteric buzzwords. Just plain language. C'mon, Hawking, Davies, Greene, et al, can do it!
BTW what grade school did you go to?
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No, but it is so complex that if you want to understand it, you'd best be prepared to work for it. If you want easy, pretty, or made up answers, there are plenty of websites offering them. Usually at a hefty sticker price. Here, there's a community of people ranging from the curious to the over-educated, most of whom are patient and willing to do what it takes to learn or explain. If the answer isn't clear the first time through, people are nice enough to sit down with you and try to explain it in a different way until you catch on, so long as you're willing to try to catch on in the first place.
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That's why I'm here!
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You may as well walk into the IRS and ask how all of your tax dollars are being spent, while demanding the phrase their answer in a hand gesture.
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A hand gesture is what I would expect from them!
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"If I can't understand it, clearly it's wrong." Sorry, it doesn't fly. You pretty much want someone to explain the workings of the entire universe in language a 4 year old could comprehend. You can't even explain the workings of a dishwasher like that. "Plates come out clean" just doesn't cut it in the real world.
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Reading between the lines of this rather hysterical quote of yours, Kristophe, I sense that you believe that you DO in fact understand "the workings of the entire universe", but couldn't possibly even BEGIN to explain it to a common peasant like myself?
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We have these machines called "clocks". They're used to measure the passing of "time".
With me so far? Good.
When I look at other peoples clocks, how quickly I see their clocks count time depends on where they are. When I look at someone who is moving away from me, I see their clock running slower than mine. I also see their clock running slower than mine when they move toward me, or when they're on the floor below me. However, when I look at someone on a floor above me, I see their clock running faster than mine. Because I see peoples clocks working at different speeds depending on where they are, I'm not going to measure the age of the "universe" using their clocks.
I always see my clock run at the same rate, though. It doesn't matter if I'm at the top of a mountain, or deep under the sea. It ticks away steadily whether I'm moving quickly, or standing still. It doesn't depend on speed or location, so I'm going to measure the age of the universe using my clock.
Is that clear enough, or should I break it down every further?
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Nope, that's fine thanks. And after a rather long-winded & emotional preamble, you finally deliver the goods! Thanks! That was all I was asking.
