2815. The Rupert Equation © Bruce Goodman 15 August 2023

Eleven year old Rupert won a school science competition. To win one had to write something about space and time travel and light and whatever. The prize wasn’t much but it was exciting. The local Laboratory of Scientists was having an evening when pictures of outer space, taken by the latest and greatest telescopes, were projected onto gigantic screens. It was like floating in space. Scientists would comment and explain each photograph. Is this a space craft? asked a scientist gesturing towards what was possibly a tiny bit of fly dirt on the projector’s lens amongst a billion stars. It was a good excuse for him to rant on about his latest obsession: if there were aliens circling our planet where were they? Their crafts could dive under water. They could move instantaneously despite nothing being able to travel faster than the speed of light. They were… Rupert’s hand shot up. Sir, he said. If there is instantaneous movement then there is no movement. There is no speed. There is no time. It is completely irrelevant that nothing can travel faster than light. Only when time and speed equal zero can something be instantaneous. Thank you for your comment, said the scientist. What a silly boy. Incorrigible, but still, we must be nice to him. It would take two hundred years for scientists to discover that Rupert was right.* * Footnote: When eventually scientists did formulate a theory of instanteousness, it was known as “The Rupert Equation” after a very old but famous blog posting. Contact Author Back to Index Next Story Previous Story