Special Relativity On Space-Time — Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [2]

Robinson (2005: 62):

Thus the time of a person chasing the light wave and the time of the wave itself are not the same. Time flows for the person at a rate different from that of the wave. The faster the person goes, the slower his time flows, and therefore the less distance he covers (since distance travelled equals speed multiplied by duration of travel). As he approaches the speed of light, his watch gets slower and slower until it almost stops. …

For space there is a difference, too, between the person and the light wave. The faster the person goes, the more his space contracts, and therefore the less distance he covers. As he approaches the speed of light, he shrinks to almost nothing.

Depending on how close the person's speed is to the speed of light, he experiences a mixture of time slowing and space contracting, according to Einstein's equations of relativity.

 

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, time is the dimension of the unfolding of processes, and it is construed in terms of location and extent. According to the the Special Theory of Relativity, as the velocity of a body increases 

• its time intervals expand, so processes — like the ticking of a clock — unfold more slowly, and
• its space intervals contract in the direction of motion. 

Contrary to the above, the contraction of space intervals, as velocity of a body increases, actually means that the body covers more distance (space intervals) per time interval, not less. It is the space occupied by the body that 'shrinks' in the direction of motion.

This is equivalent to the gravitational contraction of space intervals towards the centre of mass, described by General Relativity, in which case a falling body covers increasingly more space intervals per time interval — accelerates — as it falls.