Everything is in Motion

Super fact 131 : There is no absolute reference point. All motion is relative. Since everything is in motion compared to something else, that means that everything is in motion. In addition, all material objects consist of particles that are in motion, and all objects with mass move through time.

A photo of planet Earth from space.| Everything is in Motion
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I previously made a post on this topic called “Everything is in Motion – Stream of Consciousness”. For a Stream of Consciousness post you are supposed to write whatever comes to mind without editing, except for typos. Stream of Consciousness is a fun concept. However, it is not fit for a super fact post because a super fact post requires fact checking and linking to reputable sources and it needs to be well organized and well explained, and all that is editing. After writing Everything is in Motion – Stream of Consciousness I realized that “Everything is in Motion” is a super fact. It is an important observation and a fact that is far from obvious. With this post I am rewriting “Everything is in Motion – Stream of Consciousness” into a super-fact I call “Everything is in Motion”.

All Motion is Relative

All motion is relative and everything moves in comparison to something else. You may be sitting in your chair completely still thinking that you are not moving but you are. Earth rotates around its axis at 1,040 miles per hour at the equator, and at 733 miles per hour at latitude 45 degrees. Latitude 45 degrees goes through New York and other northern States, as well as Europe. Sitting at the geographic north Pole won’t help you either because Earth is also wobbling and it is rotating around the sun at roughly 67,000 miles per hour or 107,000 kilometers per hour.

Picture shows a man and his dog sitting in front of a computer. Earth and the sun are in the background.
Man thinking he is sitting still drawn with the help of ChatGPT

The picture below shows Earth’s three main orbital cycles. I used this picture in another context for super-fact #122 “Orbital Cycles are not the Cause of the current Global Warming”. In that context I wanted to point out that Earth’s orbital cycles are too slow (100,000 years, 41,000 years, and 26,000 years) to explain the sudden rapid rise in global temperatures that we are witnessing now. The orbital cycles are also currently slowly cooling Earth, not warming it. However, in this context I am using the picture for a different purpose, and that is to point out that even if you sit at the north pole (or anywhere else on Earth) you will be moving.

Three illustrated orbital cycles. On the left orbital eccentricity, in the middle is the axial tilt and on the right axial precession. | Everything is in Motion
Illustration of Milankovitch cycles from MIT’s Climate Primer.

In addition, the sun is rotating around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way at 514,000 to 560,000 miles per hour or 792,000 to 828,000 kilometer per hour, and our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy are approaching each other at the speed of 110 kilometers per second, which is 396,000 kilometers per hour, or 246,000 miles per hour. Whether it is the Andromeda galaxy that is approaching us or our galaxy that is approaching the Andromeda galaxy is just a point of view. We are also moving at millions and billions of miles of hour compared to some other galaxies.

Photo of the Andromeda Galaxy
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

You are also Moving Through Time

As mentioned, motion is not absolute. It is always relative to something else. The universe has no center, no ether to compare with, there is no absolute reference point. It is not possible to declare anything as truly standing still. Understanding this is the first step towards understanding the theories of relativity. According to the theories of relativity the speed of light, or the speed of light in vacuum if you will, is a universal constant c = 299,792,458. The speed of light in vacuum is the same for all observers regardless of their speed and the direction in which they are going. In other words, you are moving at the speed of c = 299,792,458 compared to all light.

A spaceship on the right is shooting out a laser beam towards the left. Alongside the laser beam are four rockets trying to catch up with the light beam.Everything is in Motion
Four rockets, A, B, C, and D, are traveling along a light (laser) beam. No matter how fast they travel along the light beam, the light beam will always travel c = 299,792,458 meters per second faster than they do. I generated this picture with the help of ChatGPT.

In addition, c = 299,792,458 is not a speed in a regular sense, but a conversion factor between space and time. All particles/objects without mass (light particles called photons, gluons and gravity waves) must always travel at this speed, whilst all objects that have mass can only travel slower than c = 299,792,458 (compared to other objects with mass).

The E = mc2 formula
Mass is energy and vice versa, a direct result of the way time and space are related. Stock Photo ID: 2163111377 by Aree_S

You could say that compared to the reference frame of my choosing, which happens to be the chair I am sitting in, I am sitting still. I am not sure that would be fair but according to the theories of relativity you are also moving through time at the speed of c = 299,792,458. Well, that is assuming you have mass. For mass-less particles, like photons, time does not exist. Anyway, the fact that you are always moving kind sneaks in, no matter what you try.

An eye with photons streaming into it. | Everything is in Motion
Billions of photons coming into the eye. For them time does not exist. Shutterstock asset id: 2629068895 by muratart.

You could raise a couple of objections to some of the claims in the last paragraphs. Very far away, beyond the limit of the visible Universe, galaxies can move away from us faster than the speed of light. However, they are not moving faster than the speed of light compared to the space where they are. What is going on is that space and time are stretching fast due to the expansion of the Universe.

Another objection might be that light can move slower than c = 299,792,458 through transparent materials such as glass and water. So, how can the claim that all massless particles must always move at exactly the speed of light in vacuum be true? The answer to that is that the light particles (photons) in those materials are being absorbed and re-emitted as new photons by the atoms. However, in between the atoms the photons move exactly at the speed c = 299,792,458, or more correctly at the time-space conversion factor c = 299,792,458.

From left to right, an atom absorbs a photon, which excites an electron that jumps into a higher orbit. Then it emits a photon and the electron falls back to the ground state again.
From ground state to excited state, absorption and emission of a photon in an atom. Shutterstock asset id: 2180385419 by rktz.

All Matter Consist of Molecules and Atoms that move

But wait, we are not done. Another fact is that everything is made of atoms and molecules that are never completely still. Temperature is a measure of their average kinetic energy (energy of motion). Even at the temperature absolute zero molecules and atoms are still moving. Yes, even at the lowest possible temperature they are still moving. It is impossible for atoms and molecules to stand completely still, just like children.

A vibrating protein molecule.
Thermal vibration of a segment of a protein’s alpha helix. Its amplitude increases with temperature. User:Greg_L on English wikipedia, uploaded to commons by User:Frokor, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons.

Other Super Facts Related to Relative Motion

To see the other Super Facts click here

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

46 thoughts on “Everything is in Motion”

  2. As someone prone to motion sickness this post was a challenge to read 🙂 But the fact is fascinating and so well explained, again. I’ll happily keep my feet to the ground. (This is my second comment here today; the first one, from my laptop, seemed to have vanished along the way. If you do find it tucked away somewhere, this is why.)

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    1. Hello Patricia, your first comment went to spam, which is a little strange. I brought it back because I want to make sure the system knows not to put your comments in spam. Apparently, if you keep it in spam it can happen again. Again thank you so much for your kind comment.

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      1. Thank you, Thomas. That is interesting. I wrote that comment from my laptop. I was prompted to log into WP, I did, then I think the page saying comment can’t be processed (or something like that) came up. So I commented again from my android phone (which is what I usually do). I don’t really comment from my laptop because on some WP blogs I have to log ino my WP account each time. There must be something else along the way. I’ll try to figure it out. 🙂

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        1. The same thing happens to me and my comments are put in spam. The system is not very smart. I just brought five comments out of the spam folder before writing this comment. I just have to remember to check the spam folder. I do get many real spam comments as well as comments that are not spam but have something wrong with them. For example, comments with more than two links all go to the spam folder, but that is by design and a recommended setting. Whenever, someone has more than two links they have to split it into more than one comment. Another issue is non-English words. Your comment was certainly not spam and had nothing wrong with it either.

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          1. On my WP dashboard, under Settings – Discussion, if I scroll to Comment Moderation I can choose the number of links to allow in a comment before holding it for moderation. I guess you did the same. But good people never stuff their comments with links.

            Also, although I don’t use a lot of Plugins, I found the Akismet Anti-spam plugin very useful, even for spammy comments.

            WP is always a learning curve. I liked your observation, “the system is not very smart.”

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            1. Yes you are right. If a comment is filled with lots of links, that is suspicious, which is why I kept the default, which is two per comment. If you are in a discussion with someone you may need more links but then you don’t mind splitting up in several comments, well unless you are spamming. I have to admit I have not used any plug-ins. Maybe it is time I start experimenting with some.

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  4. Very insightful and certainly mind-blowing, Thomas!! This quantum view and framework fits perfectly in my energetic spiritual perspective of it all. Thank you for this precious share, I enjoyed reading it. Lots of light and blessings to you, my friend 🙏 🌟

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    1. Thank you so much Pooja. Yes all the atoms and molecules in our bodies, in all objects, and in the air are moving around and vibrating, that’s what makes temperature. The faster the motion, the hotter. However, even at the coldest temperature possible, absolute zero Kelvin degrees, -273.15 °Celsius, or -459.67°Fahrenheit, the atoms are still moving a little bit.

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      1. I feel that I must have learnt that at some point but forgot about it since I dropped all the sciences in Year 9. I didn’t realise that was the reason for temperature. When I was a kid, I thought -100 °C was the coldest temperature possible and was surprised to find out that wasn’t the case.

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        1. In our lab at my University (Engineering Physics) we lowered the temperature of Helium to below -270 Celsius and it started behaving really weird, climbing the walls inside the special glass container and dripping right through the bottom of another smaller regular glass container. However, quantum physics prevents the atoms from being completely still even at the lowest possible temperature.

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            1. Yes it behaves very weird and it was very cool (pun intended) to see. We also put a metal straw inside the super cold glass container with the liquid helium, and the helium climbed up in the straw and poured out at the top like a fountain and it kept going all by itself for as long as we did the experiment. Also, metal and special plexi glass could hold the liquid helium but it leaked through pretty much everything else including regular glass, porcelain, tile, rock, etc.

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  14. Really interesting! I had a fun fact from the other day that was one sentence. It said … by the time you finish reading this, the Earth will have traveled almost 100 miles through space. I’ve heard that the atoms and molecules are always moving, but it’s kind of creepy to think that everything we see and touch that there are those little wiggly things in there. ewww! haha But still interesting. 🙂

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    1. Thank you Barbara. That is an interesting fact about moving Earth. About wiggly molecules, at least most of them don’t look like worms, well maybe the DNA molecules do, and polymers, and fatty acids, and cellulose, well never mind.

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  15. Every part of us is on the move and we’re constantly moving into the future. It probably helps to explain why I feel tired after a long day, even when all I’ve been doing is sitting in front of the computer! Although I’m mostly being whimsical, it is pretty stunning to realize that the everything is literally in motion all the time.

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