Relatively Weird (words & music by A. Marscher copyright 2001)

mp3 recording of song

1. Is this high or low? It's just comparative / Is it fast or slow? It's simply relative

The distance to another star is not always the same / Even the passage of time depends on your reference frame

2. Is it energy or mass? Well, E = mc². / And if it goes really fast, put a gamma in there

This is the principle behind all bombs nuclear / It even describes why each star shines from reactions at the core

Chorus

Well, Einstein figured all this out, replaced ideas from the past / At first no one else knew what it was about, 'cause they'd never gone so fast

As 98% the speed of light, Lorentz factor of 5 / Accelerate into the night, and if you can survive . . . your friends on Earth will not [rot]

3. Do you want to take a trip, zip 'round the Galaxy / Hop in my super spaceship, accelerate at 2g

We'll travel around together, visit exotic worlds / Nothing lasts forever, but we'll have time for a grand tour

[Chorus]

Ending:

General Relativity bends my mind, just as mass does space / How does a black hole slow down time as viewed from a distant place?

Gravitational redshift . . . event horizon . . . infinite Doppler shift . . . I'm falling iiiiiinnnnn