Monday, April 2, 2007

Relativity: The way I look at it


"Albert Einstein". Thats the name that immediately strikes your mind when you hear the word 'Relativity'. People from world of physics know him for many of his theories, equations, relations that are still a matter of deep interest to many. But I think the most popular among the multitude of his theories ought to be the theory of relativity.

My acquaintance with Relativity was a rather simple statement, "If you sit with your loved one, an hour seems like a minute; but when you are with someone whom you don't like, a minute seems like an hour". Well, at first, it didn't quite appear like a theory propounded by a physicist. I wondered how this fitted into the jigsaw puzzle called physics - its physical viewpoint. Frankly, I never treaded deeply into this theory, but it surely gave me a new dimension to look at it.

Relativity, as I see it is much to do with human nature than with the complexities of physics. Human thoughts, relations, behaviour all follow this theory. Everything in this world is subjective, rather; relative. Success is relative, happiness is relative, freedom is relative; even contentment is relative. I think the very concept of an 'individual' or 'individuality' stems up from roots of Relativity. Our perception of material or immaterial things is dependent on our
own parameters or viewpoint on the matter concerned. If you ask any other 'individual' his or her take on the matter, it will always be relative to personal interpretation. And that's what makes us realize the true meaning of the word 'an individual'. You cannot have a comparison between any two persons, for the simple reason that there can be no comparison among individuals, which in turn symbolizes uniqueness. And that's because of the nature of their Relativities.

Sure enough, you cannot expect to have something called as 'degree of relativity' so that you have a yardstick for measuring Relativity. That's because assigning a degree to something needs a 'reference'. And 'reference' too, is Relative !!

So what do I conclude at the end of it? Well, the manifold hues of life; thoughts, experiences, notions, beliefs add a dash of variety to our monotonous lifestyle. The nonuniformities we see around and which enhance and expand our outlook of the world exist thanks to differences in Relativity.

And yes....'conclusion' can also be Relative !!

4 comments:

chinmay said...

i love to blog...some other dude might like to burst grenades in his spare time...hobbies are relative...people are relative...even our closest relatives behave relatively[which depends on how badly we screw up our lives]

Jayee Patil said...

heey.. to begin with i hate physics.. not a surprise to you!! which in turn makes me hate Einstein.. but he definitely was one interesting man i must agree. the theory of relativity was one that no matter how many yrs later i will not 4get it! why?? cause of the example given to explain it!! its one part of physics that makes real practical sense to me !!

me said...

hey.. somehow it feels as if the blog was written by me..! :-) so surprising to find another similar mind! I'll probably blog on relativity too sometime..

Anonymous said...

Great work.