why do scientists state that Relativity Theory defies common sense?

Question

If time exists in the Universe as a whole would it not be considered Universal?

Dont we live in One planet and all our measurements are they not only relative to it?( a zero point of reference?

Isnt time measured by a pendulum dependent on Newtonian gravitational acceleration?

Isnt the increase of light velocity dependent on gravitational acceleration?

isnt the mass loss(mass decrease) of a moving object that determines its velocity and acceleration?

Answer 1

Common sense is a phrase that relates to our experiences and the data we gather through our senses.

Centuries ago, the earth was thought to be flat - at the time, the fact that it is a sphere was contrary to our experiences and common sense.

A lot of science and physics is contrary to our everyday experiences - and when objects approach the speed of light, all bets are off.

Even Newton, who possessed the genius to equate the gravitational force which caused an apple to fall to earth was the exact same force that held the moon in orbit (not exactly intuitive thinking) was totally convinced in the "fact" that time was the one constant throughout the entire universe. This was an easy concept to accept because our experiences and observations all held this to be true.

And along comes Einstein and states that time is not constant but rather depends on ones reference - and time runs slower when you are accelerated or in a stronger gravitational field or with velocities approaching light speed. An objects total mass is also dependent on its velocity.
These ideas are anything but obvious when we depend only on our senses and everyday experiences - and that is why they are contrary to our common sense.
Even Einstein struggled with the results of his work, often wondering if they were just some kind of mathematical quirk or truly the reality.
He posessed the genius to deduct that his results were truly the way the universe works - and all of the advanced technology which has followed has allowed the testing of his theories - and contrary to common sense, these experiments have held his theories to be true!

Answer 2

With the many years we have all heard of warping space, time as the 4th dimension, black holes, and so on, we have become used to the idea that space is weird. 100 years ago the whole concept of warping space, clocks that ran at different speeds, and rulers that would measure differently at different speeds was completely new and shocking. Remember, at that time it hadn't been so many years since science assumed space was filled with ether that light waves passed through. To me relativity still is not exactly intuitive, to someone back then, further scared by hearing only 3 people in the world could even understand it, it was just bizarre.

And now, relativity and quantum physics give different results. In one sense fans of common sense can relax, this shows there is something in relativity we don't understand, so they are right not to accept it completely. On the other hand, if people think relativity is strange, quantum physics leaves it in the dust.

As to our planet being an origin point: in relativity you are free to designate any point you want as an origin, but it is an arbitrary designation and means nothing. And, that is only true if your point does not accelerate. The earth is being acted on by gravitational forces, mainly the sun's and the moon's, but also others. Thus it is not a good point to choose for astronomical observations. For travel on earth, of course, a fixed point like the center of the eart or Greenwich, England is a very useful concept to use.

Answer 3

Einstein was a genius of this era....so what he proved hypothetically should be non-sensical for ordinary people. Relativity theory is based on four dimensional space-time model which is quite an imaginary equation. Hence, layman may find it out of common sense.

Einstein knew that, speed of light may not be achievable in a universal life time. And hence will never be proved right or wrong. Einstein was a 'chair scientist' who worked with his genius to prove E=mc^2 mathematically.

Relativity world is not a common world and hence should never be explored with common sense. Add imagination to common sense....Very similar to what HG Wells imagined through his Time machine....

Answer 4

Common sense perceptions arise from everyday experiences and observations of objects moving at speeds much less than the speed of light. At such speeds familiar notions like Length, Time, Simultaneity can only be interpreted by a radical departure from the older Newtonian-Galilean concepts.

For example Relativity Theory rejects the notion of absolute Time and Space which are fundamental premises of Newtonian mechanics. The distance between two points and the time interval between two events depend on the frame of reference in which they are measured. In other words, there is no such thing as absolute length or absolute time in relativity. Furthermore, events at different locations occuring simultaneously in one frame are not simulataneous in another frame. Another strange effect encountered in relativity is that of time dilation. Time, according to Newton, was universal and absolute and he took simultaneity for granted. But RT introduced a profound asymetry between stationary and moving observers (at speeds comparable to c). According to a stationary observer a moving clock runs slower than an identical stationary clock. This is a startling notion of RT conceptualized in what is known as the "Twin Paradox". Briefly, if one of the twins makes a journey to a distant star at the speed of light and returns back he would find his twin brother has aged much more than him. In fact his brother has become a doddring old man! The traveling twin's body (a biological clock) has run much slower than his stay-at-home twin and he is still a youth.

Strange as the predictions of relativity are its postulates have been well tested by modern experimental techniques and in fact aircraft navigation depends intimately on relativistic effects taken into account by Global Positioning Satellites.

Answer 5

Look at the following situation:

Car A goes past you at 3/4 the speed of light. Car A sees Car B go past him at 3/4 the speed of light. "Common sense" would say that you see Car B going past you at 3/2 the speed of light. But this is not what relativity says. It says that you will see Car B go past you at 24/25 of the speed of light.

Another: Get two twins, A and B. Send A off to the nearest star at 86% of the speed of light. Have him turn around and come back at the same speed. This trip would take 10 years for B, who stayed at home. "common sense" would say that A aged 10 years in the process. Relativity says that he only aged 5 years.

Answer 6

Without going into a lot of details about RT, the basic answer is that the theory demonstrates how certain "laws" of physics are not constants as anticipated. Thus, the universe sometimes behaves in ways contrary to how "laws" would predict based on where in observer is on the space-time continuum - thus defying common sense.

Answer 7

Scientists state that RT defies common sense because it does. Common sense, being derived from common experience, tells us that speeds add linearly and time is universal in the sense that all observers will agree on the length of time between to events if they use twin clocks. Einstein showed that is not the case.