Chapter 2 Part 2

From Newton's perspective, you can contemplate the world from any vantage point that you can think of, but not all of them are equal. In that, one of these perspectives is more right than the other. That perspective being that of absolute space. Later in the chapter it is stated that to determine who is truly moving you must observe the effects of that motion. The book uses the example of a skater twirling in an arena. If the skater is turning then the skater will feel their arms pulling outward towards the rest of the universe, while if the arena was spinning the skater would not feel their arms pulled towards the empty universe. Additionally the chapter states that in an empty universe you would not feel your motion. The theorist who stated this is Mach. In other words you will only feel acceleration when you accelerate relative to the speed of the universe. 

Chapter 2 The Universe in a Bucket

 Chapter 2, The Universe in a Bucket describes a 300 yearlong debate. This bucket was special is that it represented a thought experiment described in 1689 by Sir Isaac Newton this experiment is as follows take a bucket filled with water hanging by a rope, twist the rope tightly and let it go. At the beginning the bucket will spin, but the water within it remains relatively stationary, but when the bucket picks up speed motion is communicated to the water by friction. Therefore the water begins to spin as well. Causing the service the water to form a concave shape higher at the rim and lower in the center. Prior to Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity theorists were well aware that velocity is relative. That is to say that motion only has meaning in relation to something else, so it would be correct to say that a "pitcher pitching a ball at 100 mph but the ball is approaching the batter at 100 mph and that the batter is approaching the ball at 100 mph." Newton finding that the relative motion of the bucket and the water could not account for the changing shape of the water, so he took experiment out to the next step which was a spinning bucket experiment carried out in empty space. Newton stated that there is a container called space that is a transparent empty arena in which all motion takes place . Newton called this area absolute space.

Simply stated, absolute space just is immovable and unchanging regardless of when or where you are in the universe. 

Chapter 1 part 2

Following Einstein's theory of General Relativity, it was applied to the universe as a whole. This eventually led to the creation of the Big Bang Theory. In turn the flaws of this theory led to the creation of Inflationary Cosmology. Which added a period of extremely rapid expansion to the beginning of the universe. Additionally when you combine the equations of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics you get answers that do not make sense. Those answers are probabilities that are greater than 100. In an attempt to bring these theories together Superstring Theory was created. This theory states that all matter is made up of infentesimally small vibrating filaments of energy. In addition this theory asserts that there are several more dimensions. A more robust form of this theory is known as M-Theory.

The next chapter of the book describes the universe in bucket. 

Just got the Book

Book just arrived.
Part 1 Reality's Arena is divided into four chapters. Those chapters are "Roads to Reality", "The Universe as a Bucket", "Relativity and the Absolute", and "Entangling Space."
The first chapter "Roads to Reality" serves two purposes. The first purpose is to supplement the preface in providing an introduction to the subject matter of the book. The second purpose is to give the reader a foundation of knowledge from which to build upon latter in the book. It starts by stating that the view of reality that most people have is that which they can perceive through their senses. In addition it is stated that this view of reality is fundamentally flawed, in that the way that people perceive the universe is misleading. The human perception of the universe is so limited that we only perceive a minuscule fraction of  the universe and much of what we perceive is not what it seems. Next the book begins to discuss classical physics and its main problem. That problem is not how things move or want makes them move, but instead it is what they move through. That is space. The main problem, what is space? Issac Newton defined space as an absolute unchanging field that together with time provides the arena that the universe is formed and structured within. Most people agreed with these ideas, because they lined up well with experience and with the mathematics known at the time. However this model did not account for light's motion or radiation produce by objects when heated.