How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems

by Randall Munroe

This approach isn’t necessarily as implausible as it sounds. When Einstein was studying the movement of electromagnetic waves through space, he was puzzled by how Maxwell’s equations seemed to imply that an electromagnetic wave can never appear stationary relative to any observer. The equations suggested that you could never catch up to a light wave and see it frozen in place—no matter how fast you went, you’d measure the light moving past you at the same number of miles per hour. This led Einstein to realize that something must be wrong with our idea of “miles” and “hours,” and his theories explained how time flows differently for different observers depending on how fast they’re going.