I watched Interstellar this past weekend. I never took physics, thus Mike had to give both Jen and I a lesson mid- and post-movie, regarding Einstein’s theory of relativity, gravity, black holes, and wormholes.
Lesson takeaways:
- Gravity bends both time and space.
- Speed has an inverse relation to time (as you speed up, time slows down, and vice versa).
- Space-time bridges (aka, wormholes) theoretically allow for travel across dimensions.
- Gravity also bends brains, as mine is still flexing to grasp these concepts.
What I found most intriguing, however, was the movie’s take on a fifth dimension. Before proceeding, it might be best to review the first-fourth dimensions...
Growing up, my Oma (“grandmother” in German) had a Matryoshka doll, also known as a Russian nesting doll. Essentially, it’s a set of hand-painted wooden dolls of decreasing size, which nest within each other. They had no lights, noise, or the pomp of modern toys, yet my sister and I were fascinated by them...
Five months ago, my masseuse gave me freesia bulbs from her garden to plant. Knowing I’m not a green thumb, I reluctantly took them. They sat in a Ziploc bag on my counter for a month before I finally decided to plant them. I bought a cheap pot, some cheap soil, and planted the bulbs, expecting nothing to happen...
During the fourth week of class, I take my students through the passion narrative in Matthew’s gospel. The “passion narrative” simply refers to the suffering and death of Jesus. All four gospels contain a version of this account, which begins with Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane and ends with his burial...
Last night, I had a dream in which I was roughly four or five-years-old. I was hesitating on the pool sidelines with my floaties on. I’m laughing, but this is out of nervousness, and an attempt to delay the inevitable. There’s a man in the pool who’s encouraging me to jump in. I didn’t know who he was, but in the dream, despite not wanting to jump, I knew he would catch me...
