Joseph Palme Myers - paintings, drawings, prints

Oil on Canvas, 1989, 26"x17.5"

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This is my oversimplified view in attempting to understand and portray some aspect of the theory of relativity. One conclusion of Einstein’s theory of relativity is that as one approaches the speed of light, time slows down, length compresses, and height and mass both increase.  One explanation I had heard about how Albert conceived of his theory was that he imagined himself on a beam of light that had reflected off of a clock tower, and his theory was an attempt to document the physics of what would be observed.  In this snapshot of approaching the speed of light, the image of the clock is frozen at 5 minutes to eight, but since the velocity was not the full speed of light, the clock is just squished a little.  At the speed of light, the width of the clock would reduce to nothing and the height would become infinite.  Or something like that.