Einstein’s Dream: Life At The Cosmic Speed Limit [PART: 1]

The mystical bizarre movement of outside existence has failed to sync with Betty’s mind. She is perplexed, beyond which she can ever think of, and has reached the point where predictability loses its validity. Where is she? Inside a trauma or physically in a reality that has not been experienced by any human before? Crude, yet truth, an unexplained gush of an aura encapsulated her and she felt disambiguation stacking in her mere perception. Every complex unpredictable snapshot of actuality, as if somehow decided to let her molecules be in rapport with the vigorously changed environment. And correctly, she realized that she can see her twin sister Ketty in front of her, again. But something was different, everything else was at stand-still except her thoughts, her emotions and the unbounded spectator which happens to be the writer of this article. Dream within a dream, life within a life, world within a world and death within an unmatchable speculation. All such theories converged into an infinitely dense point which gave birth to Betty in a new world that she is yet to discover.


Sir Albert Einstein, in 1905 came up with two simple postulates which, later on, changed the course of physics. Simple yet pioneering, game changing and statically dynamic theories that reveals a universal truth that is by proven to be impeccable (in terms of experiments). They are:

1. The laws of physics are the same for observers in all inertial reference frame. No one frame in preferred over another.

Frames of reference are essentially nothing but a coordinate system associated with an observer. Inertial frames are those which are either at rest or are moving with a constant velocity i.e. without acceleration.

2. The speed of light in vacuum has the same value c = 299792458 m/s in all inertial reference frames. All other objects move at speeds less than c.

These statements are not just some mere sentences but they altruistically commemorated new physics when compared to what people used to think before this discovery. Shockingly, it not only refurbished the foundation of physics but also gave birth to spooky, ultra-futuristic snaps propelling an impact on the scientific minds.


While Ketty and Betty, the twin sisters, having approximately the same age were fighting to be the next specimen for the “Imaginary Space Agency’s” (ISA) Einstein’s time dilation experiment, Betty won the lottery and was chosen to fly outbound in a spaceship with 99.9% the speed of light. While Ketty waits on the earth as directed by ISA for a secret project. What happens is that, considering the static reference frame of Ketty, Betty moved with an almost light speed which increased the difference of time elapsed between two relativistic frames and correspondingly produce two simultaneous information to Betty and Ketty. According to Betty, Ketty is the one moving in such speed as she views the world from her point of reference. And to Ketty, her sister Betty is moving. Einstein’s theory suggests that if an object really catches the speed mentioned above, time will slow down for her and a clock would tick only at 4.5% of the rate at which a static clock would tick. So for both, it seems that the relatively static object becomes older than the person who is moving.

Now, how’s that possible? Both the person thinking almost the same thing and apparently with no error. This is where the twin paradox was born. Now, Betty’s journey was a round-trip because scientists needed to verify the truth. While Betty came back, it’s seen that Betty had grown only 5 years older than what she was whereas Ketty had an additional 110 years than her past age! But didn’t we just discuss that physics is impartial? Then is it the almighty God who has made Betty “the chosen one” to stay younger? Well the answer to that is, Yes, if you consider Physics as the God. It is therefore important to note that the twin paradox, isn’t actually a paradox but simply a consequence of the laws of physics. As Betty changed her direction to reach her ultimate destination Earth, she had to accelerate the spaceship and that’s where the paradox breaks and points to a single solution. The paradox could have an effect if the two frames could stay in constant velocity, however as acceleration gets incorporated in the picture, Ketty is the one who suffers due to an old age. The solution 1 was more or less the picture just narrated now. However, the drama was still left, when Betty came she could not see Ketty as she was already sent to accomplish a different expedition. INTERVAL, for the movie only.




Now let’s just roll up the projector screen and simply take a chalk and blackboard to understand another important aspect of Special Theory of Relativity. Length contraction. To understand the concept, let us consider a ruler is placed on a table. Now, for the sake of experiment, we want to measure its length. As it’s a ruler, we would know the length as it is already marked except the small extensions in both front and back side. For an accurate measurement and simplicity, we would not consider the extra part and just know that the scale is of exactly 6 inch. Surely, many of us have heard of God step or flash step which is nothing but a movement from one position to the other linearly. Suppose the scale was somehow subjected to an external force which helped it to change its position. Press pause, just think the scale is still moving and the spectator wants to record the measurement of the same scale. Practically, it should be the same. Well, for a moment let’s think that the markings are not the absolute proof and take a measurement of that scale (without extension), first labelling the initial point and then the end point or vice-versa. What did we find? If we hypothetically do so, we would get a length which is NOT equal to 6 inch rather slightly less than that!

Hold on, it’s not a magic show or a ghost story, is it? Well once again YES, if you consider physics as a magician or a ghost. But well, then isn’t it impossible stuff? After all we are getting the same scale back with same marking and same length. Owing to special theory of relativity, the scale we measure when at rest by first marking the initial and then the final point is the rest length or proper length of the scale. When it moves, a velocity factor pinching another factor known as Lorentz factor works in sync with in an equation of relative length measurement that apparently shrinks down the length. As the Lorentz factor has a value greater than unity and as it occupies the space in denominator in the equation, the whole value gets decreased than the original one.


Now, from a moving spectator’s (with the constant velocity as of the scale) point of view there was something wrong in it. To that person, the measurement taker did not measure the length simultaneously and left the whole concept a room to fuse with this velocity factor.

This very Special Theory of Relativity is the reason behind quite definitely the most famous equation ever, E=mc^2. This breakthrough discovery by Einstein which equated two quantities, mass and energy that were previously thought to be completely different is also the underlying concept behind atom bombs! According to Einstein, Energy and mass are basically different manifestations of the same entity. Thus, when an object starts speeding up, not only does its Kinetic Energy change, but so does its mass. As you increase the speed, the mass keeps on changing and at the speed of light, the mass becomes infinite. But, hold on. This is not mass in the classical sense. This is called Relativistic mass and the phenomenon is a direct consequence of the mass-energy equivalence. The mass we are all acquainted with is the rest mass, which is simply the mass measured by an observer at rest relative to the body being measured. The same Lorentz factor also appears in the famous equation showcasing the dependency of mass on speed.

Ultimately, if the measurement taker could mark the initial and end point simultaneously, there’s no way to generate such eerie, premature concepts.

As the hall is set again, let’s start where we left off some moments ago. Betty came back, Ketty is gone. Betty has grown 5 more years than when she saw Ketty for the last time. Betty went to ISA, asking about her twin sister when they said they have again launched another space expedition where she was sent already. Betty insisted to the ISA team and finally they were convinced to send her where they had sent her sister. Taking a huge space leap, Betty reached that infamous wormhole she has heard of in her cosmology classes. It’s an untethered feeling, she voiced her opinion to the spectator. And then… everything is shown in a flash back is pretty much the same as described in the first paragraph.

Betty is now in the ultimate face-off challenge. All the surroundings are now submerged in quivering silence, so as Ketty. But how could she think? Her emotions are still valid and she still consciously knows Ketty is her twin sister. The point is where are they?


Most interestingly, this is the portion where the spectator has to treat him as the God father and see the image of that place from completely a different world with the hypothetical eyes. If we assume it’s possible, what he sees, then only could it leave him awestruck. Unknowingly Betty has fallen into a wormhole that connects to another bubble like universe, the shortest ever possible path to connect two parallel universes. And then? By means of incorrigible luck factor and taking the bet on probability she landed in the universe where all matter is made up of Tachyons.

Not just that, it’s a particle that was first hypothesized by Indian scientist George Sudarshan who proposed it to be the particle that always move faster than light! Where the prevalent governing laws including Einstein’s do not work. And putting emphasis on symmetry, everything runs faster than light in a Tachyonic universe and nothing could be ever predictable as the known laws will not work anymore. Very valid question, if so, what happened to Betty’s emotion? How could she still have her consciousness? Does that mean the drama was plotted after 2045? Betty is slowly trying to comprehend her position, meaning, life and after a long time she has closed her eyelids and reopened them.


Yes, she could probably win now as she is the next generation of a new species, a species that came out of incubation having the most powerful computer crafted inside her genetic information as humans have already reached a technological singularity. So if Betty herself and the environment, both lie beyond prediction could they produce a harmonic collaboration, for which she is still alive? Is this a practical solution B or the event demands more? Hold on, we never discussed what happens if something exceeds light speed although it’s not possible in our universe. Arguably, the clock will move backwards. So, will Betty see her age getting lowered down? Or as no laws work in this alternative universe she will never age or age more rapidly? Or what if she could not survive the journey to the worm whole? What if she couldn’t get back to Earth on the first place? What if she was not chosen in the first place? What if she was never born? What if the earth was never created? What if the Big Bang never happened? So many possibilities, choices, inclusion, exclusion, where are we heading towards? Can you guess it? If so, let’s wait for the sequel of this article. Physics has all the answers!

PS: Orienting thoughts #Little break from semester exams !! ☕