Quote:
Originally Posted by
Super Spaz 
Dylan rocked on his chair. Galileo? Who? This guy had amazing hair. Dylan wanted to touch it. Here, Risu-Risu-Risu Cos mind control actually worked. Anyway what was this guy going on about? "He came to that conclusion, but experimenting and observing." Yeah that was right.
Risu shrugged and grinned. That had been a bit of a vague answer. "It was more a thought experiment, really. There wasn't much to experiment on and observe."
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Suziella Apollo raised his hand, "Well it is very logical if you think about it. Everything is constantly in motion, even if we are standing still because the earths rotation, therefore you can only state where you are relatively to another person or object." He shrugged confidently and grinned over at Taylor again.
Apollo's wink rather put Risu off. Why, he thought, would he be running around with sunglasses this early in the morning anyway? He only half-listened to the answer the boy was giving, trying instead to figure out this much more interesting conundrum.
Risu was still a decent-enough teacher to realise when Apollo was done, though. "If you can say that with such confidence, Mr Leone," Risu said, "then you're already smarter than Aristotle." Oh, that would give him a way to introduce himself to the girl.
Smarter than Aristotle... "Aristotle would have said without the shadow of a doubt that absolute space existed and that, therefore, one could say with certainty if something was moving or standing still. But," he added with a slight grin, "that just as an aside. You see, the reason why absolute space made no sense to Galileo was that, if there was an infinite, unchangeable... grid or something, absolute motion and rest could be defined according to that grid. Since there's not, there's... not." He clapped his hands together.
"With that said, we are ready, I think, to finally concern ourselves with relativity. One of the most important discoveries leading up to this theory was that of the speed of light. Up to that point, most people would have said that light was infinitely fast. It would not have had a speed. But in the 19th century, experiments with electromagnetism confirmed the speed of light as being somewhere in the vicinity of 300,000 kilometres per second. But..." Risu returned to his desk and leaned against it carefully, trying not to upset the piles of books. "There is a slight problem here... Can someone spot it? I'll give you a hint. It has to do with how waves move. Water waves require the sea. Sound waves require air. But... where is the medium light travels in? There's no air or anything in the vacuum of space... Any ideas on how to resolve this apparent dilemma?"