relativity and railroads

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu writes:

> But I seem to recall Bertrand Russell's book on Relativity (read
> alas many yrs ago) using examples of parallel trains, in contrast to
> Einstein's single train.  Good book for idiot non-scientists like me
> (is there any other kind of non-scientist?).

I am sure there are lots of idiot non-scientists who bear no
resemblance to you, John. That Eric von Daniken, for one.

> One thing I recall was the great, Russellian acidity in the
> observation he makes that many people blithely say *everything's
> relative* but of course this is nonsense, sez Bertie, for if it were
> so, what would it be relative TO?

Not wanting to appear a polymath or anything, but clearly the answer
is `to everything else'. I fail to see how Bertie's comment betrays
either wit or insight. Perhaps he should have read more Leibniz?


Andrew Dinn
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We drank the blood of our enemies.
The blood of our friends, we cherished.