Relativity, in words of four letters or less

February 5, 2003 2:37 PM

Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity in words of four letters or less
posted by Mwongozi (30 comments total)

now that's just cool.
posted by oog at 2:43 PM on February 5, 2003

yeah, lots and lots and lots of words of four letters or less.
posted by donkeyschlong at 2:44 PM on February 5, 2003

science predicts that one day we'll be able to explain it just three
posted by Peter H at 2:47 PM on February 5, 2003

that's with just three
gaa, i fucked up my joke!
posted by Peter H at 2:49 PM on February 5, 2003

Well done. Only in one spot or two can you tell that he had a hard time with the task. This can show that even a guy that blew your mind in the past can be put in a way that you can get!
posted by psychotic_venom at 2:49 PM on February 5, 2003 [1 favorite]

This beats the way my physics teacher explained it, which was, "just give up, you'll never understand."
posted by Hildago at 2:50 PM on February 5, 2003

"When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity." -- Old Al
posted by Hildago at 2:54 PM on February 5, 2003

Well technicall, it's four letters or fewer, as you can't have a fractional letter. But then again fewer has greater than four letters, so you're screwed either way.
posted by woil at 2:54 PM on February 5, 2003

fantastic post. thanks bunches. this theory is something i've always struggled with in those damn astro classes; it's nice to have it explained to you by someone who knows you're not particularly interested in the details, just the gist.

[this is freaking good]
posted by fishfucker at 2:56 PM on February 5, 2003

But Herb -- what? No, Herb isn't his real name, but I like to call him that

Hah.
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 2:58 PM on February 5, 2003

[this is very good]
posted by yhbc at 3:02 PM on February 5, 2003

[this is exaggeratedly superexcellent]
posted by Pretty_Generic at 3:03 PM on February 5, 2003

Hey, those weren't the kind of four-letter words I was hoping to read.

It was good even without curse words. The F-word would have made it so colorful though...
posted by VelvetHellvis at 3:05 PM on February 5, 2003

Do we have a rule of some kind that says that when you talk back to a post that uses some kind of neat idea with how it says what it says, your own post has to be done the same way?
posted by wanderingmind at 3:16 PM on February 5, 2003 [1 favorite]

this is really neat, and wanderingmind: nice.
posted by quin at 3:49 PM on February 5, 2003

Let's see him try it with eighteen letter words. That would impress me.

Very nice link. And very well done.
posted by Kafkaesque at 3:57 PM on February 5, 2003

woil:
Well technically, it's four letters or fewer, as you can't have a fractional letter. But then again fewer has greater than four letters, so you're screwed either way.


"four words or not as many"?
posted by notsnot at 4:34 PM on February 5, 2003

"Letters" is a word with more than four letters, so I don't think that matters.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:47 PM on February 5, 2003

What, no post with a link or note of Made Apex Dean yet?
posted by jjg at 5:10 PM on February 5, 2003

This is very good post. I can't not type like this. My mind is now jelly. All your fault.





[but good post still]
posted by krazykity16 at 6:42 PM on February 5, 2003

I don't believe it - relatively speaking of course.
posted by LowDog at 6:59 PM on February 5, 2003

Heh, now I'm thinking about how it would have been if Else Holmelund Minarik had written this as one of her Little Bear books (with Maurice Sendak illustrations, of course).
posted by wobh at 7:08 PM on February 5, 2003

Just plain elegant.

A brilliant use of a simple sub-set of Basic English and other simple words.

As Churchill said: "The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all."

(As a friend once said, she then breaking out in a hearty laugh, "That old drunk... he probably couldn't remember the LONG words!")

If the only rap against this tour de force is that the title does not conform to the "four letter or less" criteria, how about this:

ORIGINAL: Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity In Words of Four Letters or Less

NEW: The Tale of Why Al's Idea That "E" Is Dead On The Same As "MC²."
And Told So That Each Word Is Of Four or Less Jots In Each Type Unit.
posted by Dunvegan at 7:21 PM on February 5, 2003

Oh. Must fix that.

Here:

The Tale of Why Al's Idea That "E" Is Dead On The Same As "MC2" Is True.
And Told So That Each Word Is Of Four Or Less Jots In Each Type Unit.

So be it. Ack.
posted by Dunvegan at 7:40 PM on February 5, 2003

or:

Why Old Al's Idea of E and MC2 is True: As Told in an Odd Way.
posted by pheideaux at 8:26 PM on February 5, 2003

Peep Al E's "E" and "MC" fly dope done home like, yo!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:51 PM on February 5, 2003

Einstein himself wrote a fairly understandable book about relativity, which I read sometime in grade school.
posted by BlueWolf at 9:14 PM on February 5, 2003

This idea of Al's has had its day. Now, if you ask a man in a lab coat what of the big area away from the ball we live on, he will tell you that the main idea now is tiny rope, tiny rope all over, and also that many key bits of Al's idea are made fun of by the ever more pat idea of lots and lots of tiny tiny bits.
posted by dhartung at 9:38 PM on February 5, 2003 [1 favorite]

dhartung, I feel...I don't know...somewhat strung along by that theory...but, after some thought, perhaps it's a super theory, after all.
posted by Dunvegan at 10:09 PM on February 5, 2003

I always thought E=mc^2 was `leet speek anyways.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:13 PM on February 5, 2003