I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 541 (Patreon)

Chapter 541: Time is Meaningless to Light, Distance to Electrons

Dennis's words resonated with the wizards, many of whom proposed their own methods to surpass the speed of light, like finding a reference object moving fast enough or more directly, shooting lasers forward and backward.

"You seem to have not fully read my theory of relativity, otherwise you wouldn't think this way," Lynn sighed, interrupting the discussion.

"Are you referring to the relative formula of speed and time?" Anthony suddenly asked.

Unlike the other wizards who started questioning after only reading the first half of the paper, Anthony, trusting Lynn, had read all the documents carefully, though his doubts were even greater.

He was most shocked by the four relative formulas mentioned, seeing the immense ambition of the Star of Magic in them. He saw a theory aiming to unify energy, mass, speed, and spacetime into a new theory of power, vastly different from their current understanding.

"Correct," Lynn nodded, then continued to explain. "The reason we cannot surpass the speed of light lies here—because if an object's speed changes, the time it experiences changes as well!"

According to the well-known formula, distance equals speed times time.

Now that the speed of light has become a constant, the only variable that can change is time!

"Suppose there is a beam of light moving forward. To an observer standing still, it travels at 300,000 kilometers per second. If you chase the light at 150,000 kilometers per second, your time flow would slow down to half compared to that observer. Therefore, to you, the speed of light remains 300,000 kilometers per second," Lynn explained.

"So, the faster we run, the slower time passes?" Steg's brow furrowed as he asked. "Why don't we notice any time difference when we run or even when riding a train?"

"That's because the speeds are too slow. Even the speed of a train is negligible compared to the speed of light, so changes in time flow are not noticeable..." Lynn shrugged nonchalantly.

This explanation clearly showed why the speed of light is constant in any observer’s view, mysterious and unchanging for most wizards, at least within their universe where no one's second is longer or shorter than another's.

"But if changes in time flow at low speeds are hard to measure, how can we prove it?" Dennis asked, puzzled.

"That's also easy. According to the relative mass formula, speed and mass can be converted, so large mass objects also exhibit differences in time flow!" Lynn explained with a smile.

Dennis was momentarily stunned, then quickly understood, exclaiming, "Could it be... gravity?!"

"Exactly, gravity!" Lynn nodded. "Time and space are one; they are inseparable. Spatial distortions naturally cause changes in time flow."

"I have already verified this," Lynn said, taking out a quartz clock and placing it on the table. "I attempted to create the strongest gravitational field within my capabilities and placed this quartz clock inside it. Now it shows a time about 0.03 seconds slower than the outside world!"

0.03 seconds? Are you sure it's not the quartz clock malfunctioning? Steg looked puzzled but eventually shut his mouth because such a simple issue surely wouldn’t have been overlooked by the Star of Magic. Just repeating the experiment a few times would clarify everything.

Sean's invention, the quartz clock, had become an indispensable tool for every wizard, capable of precision up to one eighty-thousandth of a second and running flawlessly for months.

Harof, Anthony, and a few senior wizards who had dealt with temporal gates couldn’t help but think of other realms.

With the eternal star they resided in having a sevenfold time flow difference from the outer realms of the temporal gates, does this mean the other world moves faster, thus having a slower passage of time?

"Chairman Lynn, shouldn't space and time be independent entities?" Jeffrey questioned, confused.

In his view, space is space, and time is time, clearly distinct.

"If they are interconnected, doesn't constant time flow imply constant spatial movement?" Jeffrey continued.

"Jeffrey, what do you think time is?" Lynn turned to ask.

Jeffrey furrowed his brow, thinking hard but unable to provide a fitting answer. The other wizards also pondered deeply.

Lynn didn't wait long before explaining, "In my view, time is simply the continuous, sequential manifestation of material motion and change. There's nothing magical about it; it’s merely a term we created to describe the state of material motion."

"Imagine if every element in the universe stopped moving right now. Would time still have any meaning? Everything would be frozen in place, unable to move or even think..."

"So, what we call the four-dimensional spacetime universe can also be described as a moving three-dimensional space universe!"

"Since time is the abstract manifestation of continuous material motion, its trajectory can certainly be distorted!" Lynn looked seriously at the gathered

 wizards and continued.

"Based on the equation of mass and gravity, combined with the relativistic formula where speed equals mass, when an object reaches the speed of light, its time has already stopped. This is why I dare say that the speed of light cannot be surpassed!"

Lynn's voice was not loud, but it resonated like a bell in every wizard's ears, profoundly impacting their minds.

"Your theory of relativity might just overturn our entire magical system," Harof remarked, deeply moved.

As incredible as these theories sounded, like Lynn had said earlier, the purpose of their magical studies was to explain the workings of phenomena. A theory, no matter how bizarre or unconventional, if it accurately explains natural phenomena, is undoubtedly the truth.

Steg and others were left speechless in astonishment, wanting to object but having to admit that the theory of relativity not only achieved a strange logical consistency but also had the evidence of light beam deflection and quartz clock gravitational experiments.

Once the theory of relativity is proven correct, the concepts of space, time, speed, and mass will need to be redefined!

Seeing the wizards subdued and deep in thought about spacetime and matter-motion, Lynn turned to Jeffrey, curiously asking, "Master Jeffrey, I hear you've encountered some trouble improving the double-slit experiment?"

"That's not just some trouble!" Jeffrey chuckled bitterly, "I suspect we've encountered elemental specters..."

Alade detailed the various strange phenomena they encountered during the experiments.

"Photons and electrons can even anticipate our intentions to observe them, no matter how much we disguise our actions or devise methods, we can't alter this situation," Alade said with a hint of fear.

"Isn't that normal?" Lynn asked in surprise.

Alade paused, then nearly jumped up, "How is that normal?"

"Have you forgotten? For light, time has no meaning because it has reached the ultimate speed. Compared to you, time is stationary! This means that in its own perspective, it instantaneously reaches any location..." Lynn explained with a smile.

Because time is stationary for light, it inevitably knows the moment it is emitted whether it will be observed, thus determining whether to collapse.

"So, there's no precognition, everything is just magical!"

Alade stood dumbfounded, even though Lynn had explained the principle of light speed and nearly stationary time, it seemed even more mysterious now.

If light has already traveled the entire distance instantaneously, what then is the light beam they see moving? Isn't that reversing causality?

Thinking of Lynn's words that time has no meaning, Alade fell into a daze.

"And what about electrons? Their speed is far from that of light; surely time isn't stationary for them?" Jeffrey continued to inquire.

Lynn raised an eyebrow and mused, "If for light, time has no meaning, then for electrons, spatial distance is also meaningless!"

"As to why, you'll have to figure that out for yourself!" Lynn patted Jeffrey on the shoulder encouragingly, without revealing more.

In fact, he had only touched upon a fraction of the truth and wasn't entirely certain himself.

A free electron's probability cloud can cover the entire universe and theoretically can instantaneously reach any location, it's just a matter of probability.

Electrons within elements cannot do this because they are tightly bound by atomic nuclei, but once they escape, their probability cloud's range becomes enormous, certainly much larger than Jeffrey's laboratory.

The probability cloud of a free electron is also one of the few things that can exceed the speed of light, simply because the maximum speed limit of light only applies within four-dimensional space. If influenced by higher dimensions, it might not hold.

An example is under the strong gravitational influence of a massive star, where the speed of light noticeably slows down.

The reason is that light is forced to detour, no longer traveling in a straight line as they see it.

Like an ant that cannot directly cross to the other side of a hill and must first climb over, even though its speed remains unchanged, to a two-dimensional observer, it appears to move very slowly across that distance.

"Time has no meaning for light, and spatial distance has no meaning for electrons..." These thoughts lingered in Jeffrey’s mind, barely grasping a hint but not understanding why.

"This is some experimental manuscript I've summarized from my research on relativity. If you're interested, feel free to take a look!" Lynn handed out the second half of the relativity manuscripts to Steg and others.

Lynn sincerely hoped they would come to understand and overcome their fear of the microcosm.

That way, the council's mass production of legendary projects could proceed.

About half an hour later, Jeffrey and others, who had magically printed dozens of copies of the relativity manuscripts, left the estate.

They arrived confident, hoping to refute what seemed like ludicrous theories, but left deeply furrowed in thought about spacetime and matter-speed conversion.

Lynn did not see them off because Dennis suddenly reported good news—the

 first supersonic fighter had been officially completed and was ready for its maiden flight the next day!

"No wonder you had time to come and theorize with me," Lynn realized, as Dennis had been too busy even to attend academic conferences previously.

As for the test pilot for the new fighter, it was naturally the experienced Lydia!

-----------------

Table of content - Next Chapter >>>

• You can access publicly available chapters of "I Pioneered Scientific Magic" right HERE.

• Your invaluable feedback and ratings mean the world to me. Please take a moment to rate this novel at Novelupdate.

• You can also check out the other Novels I'm currently translating by clicking HERE.

• If you come across any mistakes within this chapter, kindly notify me in the comments below, so that I can make the necessary corrections.