Einstein, Newton, and Motorcycling
It's all relative...
by R. Bruce Thomas
I recently had a couple conversations that brought home how everything is relative.
The first took place in Wainwright last summer when a buddy and I were hunting down locations in the Go East of Edmonton Roadtrip Adventure. While stopped at one spot we were approached and asked where we had come from.
Edmonton.
On motorcycles? That's a long way to go!
Don and I have ridden to Newfoundland, Florida, and Alaska together, so Wainwright is practically next door.
Directly, Wainwright is a little over 2 hrs southeast of Edmonton. We hadn't gone directly so it had been about 4 hours since we'd left home and we were continuing another hour to Provost before turning around and heading for home. All in all about a 9 hour day in the saddle.
The next conversation took place a couple weeks ago at the Optical counter in Costco. Walking in with a motorcycle helmet in mid-February does draw some attention (No, I didn't ride here. I need to make sure the new frame I choose will fit in my helmet.) and is a surefire conversation starter. What do you ride? yadda yadda yadda. What plans do you have for this summer?
When I mentioned the plan for the annual trip to Alimo's Pizzeria in Slave Lake for some of their mouth-watering pies (including packing Tupperware to bring some home) I was asked if we stayed overnight.
Wait a minute. It's Slave Lake. It's about a 3 hour ride. Even for our friends from Grande Prairie who ride down. We're going for lunch. Not a weekend.
These two conversations (plus many similar ones, but usually further from home) really drove home the relationship between motorcycling and science. It's all relative.
To cherry-pick a couple points from Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity: the same laws of physics apply to everything relative to other objects, and time and distance occur at different rates (generally slower and less, respectively) for moving objects in relation to stationary objects.
I believe these points apply to motorcycling since a rider cannot escape physics and the affect those laws have on the performance of their body and machine. If you've done any amount of riding you are also aware that time and distance change drastically once you release the clutch, and that is why it can take 20 minutes to ride to work and 2 hours to ride back home again.
Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion also relates to riding as it states that a body at rest stays at rest and a body in motion stays in motion. This, I believe, explains how some people are amazed that riders can grab lunch in Wainwright or Slave Lake while they themselves are stuck in one place. A change of inertia would do many people a world of good and they would perhaps realize that distances shrink once you are moving.
Places seem far away only when you're standing still.
Motorcycles = motion, which is contagious and constant and slower than sedentary activity.
And it saddens me that more people aren't willing or able to get out and travel, by whatever means, to reap the benefits that come with it. Doing so on a motorcycle is my preferred method, but anything is better than remaining at rest.
Where are you going this summer?
Ride responsibly, and often.