Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hiromichi]

Is "but" below unnecessary?

Richard began by explaining that everything takes time. Well, duh! I knew that. Even if you're falling into the event horizon of the gigantic black hole in the center of our galaxy, you appear to freeze forever, but from your point of view, time keeps ticking.
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Hiromichi

[lotus]

Yes, you need the "but" because you are changing the point of view from someone looking at you as you fall into the black hole, to your own point of view as you fall into the black hole.


--lotus
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War does not make one great --Yoda

[hiromichi]

lotus: Thank you. I gave up. It is too figurative.
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Hiromichi

[hiromichi]

lotus:
Let me try again. Why does one freeze in this case? And what is "freeze" here?
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Hiromichi

[lotus]

It's a very common figurative phrase, "frozen in time." It means that time has stood still -- just like in movies where people just stop where they are when time stands still. At that moment, time is frozen.

The theory behind the sentence has been proven to be true. When you are falling into a black hole, you are approaching the speed of light. According to Einstein, as you go near the speed of light, time slows down for you from an observer's point of view. But, from your point of view, time is going normal. That's why when you go to the next star say, and come back, the person who sent you off looks older than you. This theory has been validated with an experiment with two atomic clocks. One stays on earth, the other goes around the earth several times at high speed. When the two clocks see other again, the speeding clock shows a slower time (less time has elapsed) than the clock on earth. To the speeding clock, the clock on earth looks older.

Now, think of the experiment with twin brothers. When the traveling brother comes back, the non-traveling brother will look older. In real life, this happens. It's just that the change in time is so small, we don't notice it.


--lotus
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War does not make one great --Yoda

[hiromichi]

Eureka、the theory of relativity.
Then second question. "Even if" should be simply "If". Am I right?
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Hiromichi

[lotus]

Richard is saying everything takes time, including yourself as you go into a black hole -- even though others might see you as frozen in time.

You don't need to use the word "even".

I would edit the passage like so:

Richard began by explaining that everything takes time. Well, duh! I knew that. Suppose you are falling into the event horizon of the gigantic black hole in the center of our galaxy. You might appear to be frozen in time forever. But from your point of view, time is still normal and the clock is still ticking.


--lotus
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War does not make one great --Yoda

[hiromichi]

lotus:
Thank you very much for your follow-up.
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Hiromichi

[SimpleEnglishBlogger]

Sorry, I disagree. If you change the "even if", you're really taking away from the author's emotions.

The author is using "even if" to indicate that the following is one where, perhaps surprisingly to the reader, is ALSO a case where "things take time".

Note the difference between the following utterances:

My phone's battery dies quickly. Even if I only use it to check my emails, it dies within a couple of hours.

vs

My phone's battery dies quickly. If I only use it to check my emails, it dies within a couple of hours.

Only using your phone to check emails should take very little power. With your phone off the rest of the time, the battery should drain slowly, not in a few hours. But the scenario is used to show that it doesn't only die under normal use, it dies quickly in situations where it shouldn't, which is a bit surprising.
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[hiromichi]

SimpleEnglishBlogger:
Thank you very much for your followup.
I would be very happy if you tell me what case is implicitly assumed in comparison in my exakmple. I don't know much about Ｅｉｎｓｔｅｉｎ’ｓ theory, though.
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Hiromichi

[SimpleEnglishBlogger]

The author is using an extreme example, which compares it to "everything" (everything takes time).
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All of the videos are in SLOW and EASY ENGLISH so they are easy to understand and will help you improve your listening until you can watch regular movies and TV!

[hiromichi]

SimpleEnglishBlogger:
Now that I got it fully. Thank you very much for your explanation which makes English easier to understand.
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Hiromichi

[SimpleEnglishBlogger]

You're quite welcome!
_________________
Visit www.sloweasyenglish.com for material to help you with your listening skills!

All of the videos are in SLOW and EASY ENGLISH so they are easy to understand and will help you improve your listening until you can watch regular movies and TV!