What is Talk to Pastor Roland Doing on His Vacation?

Hello, everyone. I'm enjoying my vacation. July is great. I'm playing some golf and had a 9 hole score of 31 yesterday! Not bad for an old guy.

I spend the rest of the day on my voyage of discovery aboard the Navis Caelis Christo Dominus. I am on my Starship named Christo Dominus, and I am exploring the universe.

I am exploring Maxwell's equations in light of (pun intended) Albert Einstein's 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies." This, of course, is his special relativity paper.

Remember when Einstein described how he pictured himself riding along a light beam at the speed of light?

Well, he decided that what classical physics (with Isaac Newton's absolute space) would have him see is a stationary oscillating electromagnetic field. But the whole idea of light is velocity. A stationary field violates Maxwell's equations.

So Albert Einstein wrote his paper to take the irregularities out of Maxwell's equations and conform them to special relativity.

Incidentally, I found an excellent book for you. It is called Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris (Emeritus Professor U.C. Berkeley). It is the history of physics and is so well written and interesting to read. I highly recommend it.

My scientific voyage to the heavens is a really far out, fun vacation trip. Of course, I have to take along some maps. I've got the above mentioned book, some of the excellent resources of John Norton from the University of Pittsburgh, and Einstein's 1905 papers. Of course, I'm also taking along Maxwell's 4 equations in partial derivative form.

Later today, I'm coming back to park my starship and stop by the library to get Einstein - Creator and Rebel by Banish Hoffmann.

I'm looking for my Faraday dynamo flashlight. It's in my star ship here somewhere . . . . . .

Of course, I'm not really on a starship, but like you find at the science exploratoriums for kids, it's fun to use my imagination. However, my studies and research into the fields of electrodynamics, astrophysics and the history and philosophy of science are real.

I taught graduate courses in critical thinking and analysis for years, and also taught research methods.

I have a background in behavioral science research. My research and publications have been primarily in the areas of conditioned response, the physiology of stress, and psycho-immunology.

My research background has served me well in making rapid progress in physics and philosophical cosmology. I am updating and will publish a book on time which I wrote 12 years ago.