Insignificance Page #3

Doesn't seem natural somehow.

Well, I... I just wonder why, um...

would my watching have embarrassed you

whereas the others didn't.

They just saw a star doing glamorous things

right there on the block.

You'd have seen a girl showing her legs

to a bunch of jerks.

Look. Could I explain something to you?

Um, certainly.

What?

The theory of relativity.

- All of it?

- No.

Just the specific.

The general theory is a little bit

too complicated to go into this late.

Don't you think?

Oh, please. I'll never have

another chance to prove it.

Uh... But why do you have to prove it?

You know what you know.

You don't believe me.

If you say you understand relativity,

then I believe you understand relativity.

You're just saying that to...

to avoid seeing me embarrass myself.

No. Certainly not.

You honestly believe

I understand relativity?

Yes.

Swear to God?

Um, whose God?

Yours.

Um...

You better prove it.

With my God,

I don't wanna take any chances.

No, no, no. I'm not theoretic.

I demonstrate. Come on.

I bought a few things.

You stand there for a second. There.

Sit down. Oh!

Here.

Wait.

Hmm?

Now, there are two things

you have to know.

The first thing is...

if I drop a copy of...

The Brothers Karamazov...

in a moving train...

it doesn't fly backwards

and flatten the conductor!

It just...

drops relative to the train.

So if anyone is conducting an experiment

in a moving train...

or in the laboratories in Princeton...

the results will always be the same.

Because no matter where his springs

and rulers and balls are, he's there too.

That's the first thing you have to know.

The second thing you have to know is...

that light absolutely

always travels at the same speed...

in all directions at once.

.397.

- It got faster?

- We got more accurate.

Oh. Don't confuse me.

Now then...

we have to imagine...

a man driving in a car

at 30 miles an hour...

and a hitchhiker standing by the road

waiting for a lift.

Now, the car's traveling at 30 miles an hour.

And the man inside the car...

throws a stone at the hitchhiker

at another 30 miles an hour.

Now, he's a league pitcher.

So the question is,

if the car's going 30 miles an hour...

and the stone is going at another

how many miles an hour is the stone going

when it hits the hiker?

Answer?

- Sixty miles an hour. Right?

- Mmm.

Pretty straightforward.

But now let's forget about the stone.

Instead, we'll imagine...

the car is traveling

at 30 miles an hour, and he...

Wait a minute.

We have to put the hitchhiker back.

All right. Imagine.

The car is driving along

and he's flashing his headlights

at the hitchhiker...

telling him to get the hell

out of the road.

Does the light travel

at 186, 282 point...

The answer... no. Why?

Because the speed of light

is always the same.

Right?

- Did you ever prove that hypothesis?

- It's never been disproved.

Let's hope it never is.

Mm-hmm.

You ready? Here we go.

We have to imagine two locomotives...

speeding past each other

at a hell of a speed.

A red one...

and...

a green one.

Now, the driver of each train...

You're the driver of the red train.

Turn it on when I say go, okay?

Has a flashlight which he turns on...

at the precise moment

that they pass each other.

Now remember, the light from the flashlight

travels at the same speed...

regardless of the speed

of the flashlights themselves.

So...

- Each light...

Turn it on.

Okay. Come on.

Okay. Go.

Both lights expand together.

Turn it on!

In all directions just like...

a single sphere of light.

Not only that...

it's time as well.

You got a watch?

'Cause you're gonna need it.

Now, we have to imagine this room...

is the entire universe.

And we begin together someplace...

in space-time...

and we synchronize it.

What does your watch say?

I travel away from you

at a hell of a speed.

Say, one-fifth the speed of light.

And I travel for five minutes,

and it gets me here.

Now, I look at my watch.

It says 20 minutes past 8:00.

But it's not very reliable...

so I look across the universe...

to check with your watch.

- And what does your watch say?

- Twenty minutes past 8:00?

Not to me it doesn't.

It says 19 minutes past 8:00...

because 20 minutes past 8:00

hasn't reached me yet.

It takes a minute

for me to see your watch...

because it takes a minute

for the light to reach me.

See? So your watch

is getting slower and slower.

And now comes

the thousand-dollar question.

Remember, if you look at my watch...

it's gonna take a minute

for it to reach you too.

- So now what do you say my watch says?

- Nineteen minutes past 8:00.

Which means you say

I'm going more slowly than you...

while I say

you're going more slowly than me.

She's beautiful.

God.

- Not bad.

- God.

She's beautiful.

Isn't it?

So...

So?

So?

So, given a constant frame of

reference within which to experiment...

according to Galileo's original principles...

and accepting the hypothesis

that light always travels...

at 186,282.397...

miles per second

in all directions at once...

the main point I've demonstrated...

is that all measurements

of time and space...

are necessarily made relative

to a single observer...

and are not necessarily the same

for two independent observers.

And that is

the specific theory of relativity.

- Isn't it?

- Amazing, but true.

Now then...

you have to show me your...

legs.

Ooh!

I promise never

to exhibit these in public...

so long as you'll promise

not to lecture on nuclear physics.

Are you kidding?

I couldn't if I wanted to.

It's one thing remembering it.

I just wish I understood it all.

You learned it without understanding?

Mm-hmm.

It's...

It's like riding on the subway.

I know here I get on, where I get off.

While I'm traveling,

I don't know where the hell I am.

I suppose you must,

but then you dug all the tunnels.

Still...

I understand the results

and the premise.

I guess that's the main thing, huh?

That's nothing.

Sorry?

If I were to tell you that the moon was made

out of cheese, would you believe that?

Of course not.

But now, if I tell you

it's made out of sand...

Maybe.

If I tell you I know for sure?

Then I would believe you.

So you know that the moon

is made out of sand.

- Yes.

- But it isn't.

I only said I knew

because you said you knew.

I lied.

Knowledge isn't truth.

It's just mindless agreement.

You agree with me.

I agree with someone else.

We all have knowledge.

We haven't come any closer

to the truth of the moon.

You can never understand anything

by agreeing...

by making definitions.

Only by turning over the possibilities.

That's called thinking.

If I say I know, I stop thinking.

As long as I keep thinking,

I come to understand.

That way, I might approach some truth.

That's the best conversation

I ever had.

Is it over?

I think it had better be.

Huh.

Hey.

A girlfriend and I played this game

a few years ago.

We each made a list of the men

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