Elasticity of the Notions of Time and Space
Beyond Einstein yet through him as well, we know that space and time are relative, that it can be verified mathematically and "scientifically". Yet, as is the case for many things in this world, we knew that well before science could tell. Such is the case for everything that is left to prove. But this is not the object of this entry.
One day as I was hitchking* between Montréal and Québec City, a prof. from UQAR (Université du Québec à Rimouski) stopped to give me a ride. After a while and among the enthusiastic talks we were having, came the notion of distance and time. The prof. gave me the example of his travel. He left Montreal and was heading towards Rimouski. He made me realised that the notion of distance and space were relative to one's point of view, one's perception.
Thus having Quebec City as a destination, I was finding the trip rather long and was looking at things along the road that helped me calculate how close we were from Quebec City.
For him, going all the way to Rimouski, the view of Quebec City would always trigger this comment: "Oh, Quebec already!". However, he would remember having the same feeling as mine when as a student he was doing the Montreal-Quebec City route, but that all that changed as he was riding much longer. Quebec City was now mid-way.
Such is the case for a winter that seems never to end. Yesterday I dropped by a blog made by a Norvegian woman. The sun had just appeared on the horizon for the first time since November! Summers must be real short, I thought. But one has to remember that it is either sunny or the sun shows light 24 hours a day for many months up there. I imagine this Norvegian woman coming here and finding our winter rather short, looking at the greeneries that will eventually show up here.
We enter March, by far the most difficult month with its tons of snow that never seem to stop falling off the sky.
But rejoice! Since the sun is much higher in the sky, the snow melts fast, except that it has to be sunny. Which might not be the case this year: for the first time in memory the Great Lakes have not frozen this year, meaning we have much more humidity than usual.**
When I was young, sunny days were almost outnumbering cloudy days, with pure blue skies all day and all night long...
* For the younger generation reading this: it involved putting one's thumb up on the side of a road or an expressway and having someone stopped, taking you aboard, bringing you up to the point where both of you were not taking the same path, chitchatting in the meantime and not having to pay for it, as a gesture of solidarity from one human being to the other. Crazy, isn't it?
** One other reason for this endless cloudiness and it has been known for a good 25 years. For each ton of fuel burnt by airplanes, 1½ tons of water vapor is being created. They are called contrails. Considering the number of flights has immensely increased in the last quarter of a century, so is the amount of man-made water in the sky.
One day as I was hitchking* between Montréal and Québec City, a prof. from UQAR (Université du Québec à Rimouski) stopped to give me a ride. After a while and among the enthusiastic talks we were having, came the notion of distance and time. The prof. gave me the example of his travel. He left Montreal and was heading towards Rimouski. He made me realised that the notion of distance and space were relative to one's point of view, one's perception.
Thus having Quebec City as a destination, I was finding the trip rather long and was looking at things along the road that helped me calculate how close we were from Quebec City.
For him, going all the way to Rimouski, the view of Quebec City would always trigger this comment: "Oh, Quebec already!". However, he would remember having the same feeling as mine when as a student he was doing the Montreal-Quebec City route, but that all that changed as he was riding much longer. Quebec City was now mid-way.
Such is the case for a winter that seems never to end. Yesterday I dropped by a blog made by a Norvegian woman. The sun had just appeared on the horizon for the first time since November! Summers must be real short, I thought. But one has to remember that it is either sunny or the sun shows light 24 hours a day for many months up there. I imagine this Norvegian woman coming here and finding our winter rather short, looking at the greeneries that will eventually show up here.
We enter March, by far the most difficult month with its tons of snow that never seem to stop falling off the sky.
But rejoice! Since the sun is much higher in the sky, the snow melts fast, except that it has to be sunny. Which might not be the case this year: for the first time in memory the Great Lakes have not frozen this year, meaning we have much more humidity than usual.**
When I was young, sunny days were almost outnumbering cloudy days, with pure blue skies all day and all night long...
* For the younger generation reading this: it involved putting one's thumb up on the side of a road or an expressway and having someone stopped, taking you aboard, bringing you up to the point where both of you were not taking the same path, chitchatting in the meantime and not having to pay for it, as a gesture of solidarity from one human being to the other. Crazy, isn't it?
** One other reason for this endless cloudiness and it has been known for a good 25 years. For each ton of fuel burnt by airplanes, 1½ tons of water vapor is being created. They are called contrails. Considering the number of flights has immensely increased in the last quarter of a century, so is the amount of man-made water in the sky.
posted by Marc Bédard Pelchat at
16:00
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