Page:Russell - An outline of philosophy.pdf/129

Rh between two events is time-like when one body might be present at both—for example, when both are parts of the history of your body. The interval is space-like in the contrary case. In the marginal case between the two, the interval is zero; this happens when both are parts of one light-ray.

The interval between two neighbouring events is some thing objective, in the sense that any two careful observers will arrive at the same estimate of it. They will not arrive at the same estimate for the distance in space or the lapse of time between the two events, but the interval is a genuine physical fact, the same for all. If a body can travel freely from one event to the other, the interval between the two events will be the same as the time between them as measured by a clock travelling with the body. If such a journey is physically impossible, the interval will be the same as the distance as estimated by an observer to whom the two events are simultaneous. But the interval is only definite when the two events are very near together; otherwise the interval depends upon the route chosen for travelling from the one event to the other.

Four numbers are needed to fix the position of an event in the world; these correspond to the time and the three dimensions of space in the old reckoning. These four numbers are called the coordinates of the event. They may be assigned on any principle which gives neighbouring co ordinates to neighbouring events; subject to this condition, they are merely conventional. For example, suppose an aeroplane has had an accident. You can fix the position of the accident by four numbers: latitude, longitude, altitude above sea-level, and Greenwich Mean Time. But you cannot fix the position of the explosion in space-time by means of less than four numbers.

Everything in relativity-theory goes (in a sense) from next to next; there are no direct relations between distant events, such as distance in time or space. And of course there are no forces acting at a distance; in fact, except as a convenient fiction, there are no "forces" at all. Bodies