i006aFig. VIa
Fig. VIa
Fig. VIa
As a final illustration of this same problem of the relativity of simultaneity we may present a geometrical analogy. We have only to consider two pointsandat the same distance above a line,and then to consider the pointsandat the same distance above another line.We have only to look at the figure to realise thatandare at the same distance neither fromnor from.Only should the two linesandcoincide would they be so.
It is much the same in relativity. The straight linesandcorrespond to the time directions of the two different observers. Classical science, assuming time to be absolute, considered the two lines coincident. Relativity has proved the error of this belief.