Pueblo chieftain., 1921-04-17
Is PERSONS DIE IN SOUTHERN T0RNAD0E
The Spot Light

Two distinguished foreigners arc
among the visitors to the United
States this year. One of them is Ma
dame Curie who discovered the
strange element, radium, and the
other is Professor Einstein, who dis
covered, or shall I say invented, the
theory of relativity.
Madame Curie's discovery upset
the fundamental scientific theories OF
physics and chemistry, and gave the
scientists jolt from which they have
not yet recovered. Incidentally she
set motor trucks to running regularly
into the desert Of western Colorado
and gave this state additional fame
As the place where you can find al
most anything you want when you
want it.
Professor Einstein went even far
ther than Madame Curic. She revo-
lutionized our ideas about the ma
terial world; he upset the universe.
There arc things about radium that
no human being can understand, but
rclativity is as far beyond radium
AS logarithms arc beyond the multi
plieation table.
Stated in its simplest form the
main Einstein idea is that the i'm
portant thing in tho universe is not
where you is, but where Is you atf
AT the begiLninc it is easy to nnder-
stand. Suppose you are in a railroad
train, and there is another train next
your window One of them begins to
move, and unless yon can feel the jar
you cannot tell which it is. A man
running back along the top of a
freight train moves forward relative
TO house or telegraph pole.
A point on the rim Of wheel
moves in q circle relative TO the hub
but in quite different curve relative
TO a point on the ground. The moon
moves around tho earth, and the moon
moves with the earth around tho sun,
and moon, earth and sun move to-
eether toward something or around
something. All motion is relative.
Tho space distances are so great
that motion is inconsiderable. Sup
pose YOU get up this morning. have
your breakfast and start out to ira
verse space. Get on TO the fastest
thing you know, ray Of light that
runs $4,000 miles second, and
travel for a day, week. or year, 1t
makes no particular difference which,
and at the end of the time you wonld
be no nearer the end of space than
you wcrc when you started.
You can't measure motion by ref
erence to space, but only by relation
10 Otner tnlngS.
Now take the case of two moving
bodies. Their changing positions rel
ative To each other depend upon the
direction of their motions and also
upon the speed of the motions. To
put this fact in moro scientific Ian
guace it is said that while space has
three dimensions, length, breadth and
thickness, motion has four dimen-
.ions, which are the three dimensions
of space and fourth dimension,
which is time. If you think that
"dimcnsion can't mean anything
more than length, breadth or thick
ness, look in the dictionary.
And right there is where I quit. |
When it comes to talking about space
that does not extend uniformly in
every direction, about space that pos
sesses curvature, and about straight
lines that meet themselves coming
back from wherever it is that they
have been going, Professor Einstein |
and yours truly don't get along to-
cether any better than former Presi- |
dent Wilson and Secretary Lansing as
was.
As between rclativity and radiurn.
me for the rsdium every time It's
home grown for one thing, and I'd
much rather be in my own back yard
over in Paradox valley, Mohtrose
county, q. s. A., than riding with a
fellow named Einstein on ray of
light with a four dimensional motion
thru space that has some sort of .
curvature and shape.
If Madame Cure comes to Colo
RADIO to SEQ where the radium comes