Ask A Scientist© Astronomy Archive

Question:  Could you explain the space/time concept.
sarajane l burr

Answer:  This is not easy in a few words.  The old way of looking *(before
Einstein) was that every point in space would have the same time.
That anything happening at some other place would be simultaneous
with what is happening here.  When Einstein realized that the velocity
of light was the same for all observers, then it meant that all points
in space do not have the same time.  It also means that you would
disagree with someone else who is far away about the sequence of events
and you could not agree is two event were simultaneous.  What this
meant was that time and the three directions in space were very much
like four different dimensions of space, that time was really very
much like one of the x,y,or z directions.  Relativity effects arise
mostly out of the mixing together of these different directions in
a four dimensional space.  I think I took too many words and may
not have helped you.  Ask again if that is the case.
samuel p bowen