• Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Just because it’s defined as some section of a light year does not mean it’s using a light year as a reference. You could use a foot and find the fraction of a light year that represents it, but that doesn’t mean that the foot is based on a light year.

    I’m saying the short measure that we use on a daily basis might be a BASE 10 portion of a light year. Not 1/299792458 of a light second.

    P.S. It’s like being on Reddit, being download for conjecturing.

    • Kethal@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I see what you mean. That is just as arbitrary as using the Earth’s size or any other reference. There’s nothing special about a year.

        • accidental@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 year ago

          it’s a hard thing for me to wrap my head around, but it’s cool when you think about it: there’s actually no possible shared reference; even with atomic clocks, based solely on the bouncing of cesium atoms ticking away, the distance travelled is dependent on acceleration in your reference frame.

          relativity really is!