- Image via Wikipedia
I mentioned once that I have always been fascinated by mathematics and physics. I have several books that explain Einstein’s theories on special relativity, gravity and others that go deeper into explain exactly what quantum mechanics are and how to bridge the gap between the two theories into a unified theory of physics.
Like most I am fascinated by shows on the nature of the universe which lead to bigger questions that I try not to even think of because my mortal mind cannot grasp them at all. Its safe to say that I posses adequate knowledge in some of the laws of physics but not enough to try to explain them to someone my own age. It gives me a headache and I’d rather it be me being wowed with theories of parallel universes, time travel, quasars, black holes and space exploration. Specially if its Michio Kaku narrating a special on TV or one of his books.
About two years ago I hit the “Explore” tab of my Google reader and came upon Matt Webb’s Light Cone RSS feed generator. Now, what is a light cone? Here is the explanation from Wikipedia:
A light cone is the path that a flash of light, emanating from a single event E (localized to a single point in space and a single moment in time) and traveling in all directions, would take through spacetime.
From the moment of your birth light has been expanding around the Earth (light that you could have influenced) and light has been reaching it (which could influence you, from an increasing distance of origin) which is your ever growing sphere of potential causality– your light cone.
The Constallation Lyra and its brightest star, Vega also known as Alpha Lyrae
His generator tells you where the light that you have influenced is in space. Currently my light cone enveloped Alpha Lyrae five weeks ago. This star is located 25.3 light years from Earth and in nine months Pi3 Orionis will be enveloped by my light cone.
The constellation Orion where Pi3 Orionis is located.
Its funny seeing the constellations and stars that my light cone has enveloped. Every other week or so I get an update on my RSS feed reader on how long ago a star was enveloped by my light and how far away the next star is from my sphere of causality. It puts things in perspective for me. Maybe I should start using Google Sky Map to see where they are located in the night sky?
The My Light Cone by Hits Snooze Twice, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Related posts:
