Time cannot exist without space, and likewise, space cannot exist
without time. This interconnected relationship of time and space is
called the space-time continuum. I know only this thing about space
and time. Can anyone explain in most simple language (without
providing too much hyperlinks to other websites) that how they are
interconnected with each other? so that I can take one step in
understanding the theory of relativity.

Hi! Thanks for the question.

The following link provides a simple explanation of this phenomena. 

"What is a space time continuum?"
http://itss.raytheon.com/cafe/qadir/q411.html

Search strategy used: 
space-time continuum basics explained
          
I hope this link would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if 
you would need further information. 
          
Thanks for visiting us.           
          
Regards,           
Easterangel-ga           
Google Answers Researcher

---

Request for Answer Clarification by kedarnavlekar-ga on 06 Apr 2003 01:55 PST

As I have mentioned that I want to take my first step in understatding
the theory of relativity please make me understand this Phenomenon by
giving silplest example if you can as the link you provided is too
heavy for me to understand. one thing I would like to mention that I
am basically from the software field and I have been very curious
about this thing since my childhood.

Thanks.
-kedar

---

Clarification of Answer by easterangel-ga on 06 Apr 2003 05:02 PDT

Hi again and thanks for asking a clarification before providing a
rating.

I have found a very simplistic explanation in the following link.

"When people say, 'relativity,' they mean that there are different
points of view that make things 'relative'."

"If I'm standing far away from you, and you see me, I look really
small, don't I? That's because my size is relative to you. In my point
of view, I'm the same size I always am, but to you I look very small.
Mr. Einstein took his knowledge of these different points of view and
constructed a theory that applied the idea of different points of view
to the world of physics. He made advancements because he saw that it
was impossible for time, space, and mass to remain the same from very
different points of view."

"If a person is traveling at the speed of light, then they will see
the world in a very different way than people who are standing still
do. Einstein believed that at very high speeds, things will shrink.
Take the case of two rocket ships, both fifty feet in length. One is
flying over the other, which is stationary on the ground. The ship
that is flying at a very fast speed will have shrunk if measured while
it is flying over (you couldn't see it with your eyes though...it
would be going too fast). The pilot of the flying ship wouldn't
notice, though, because everything in the ship will have shrunk."

Albert Einstein: Theory of Relativity
http://www.wesleyan.edu/synthesis/culture-cubed/haas/maintemp.htm

I hope that this would be of value to your question. Thanks for your
patience.

Best Regards,
Easterangel-ga

well the researcher tried his best to make understand but perhaps I am
not fit to understand the the theory.

Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" is also quite accessible. 
Available on video too I believe.

Let me see if I can get you started.
In normal life, all events that occur do so within the framework of
space and time.  Without space, there would be nowhere for the event
to occur, and without the passage of time, there would be no
difference between past and future, again preventing anything from
happening.

In the same way that we can define the position of a point is space
with three numbers (x,y,z), we can define an event by 4 numbers:
(x,y,z, and t, for time).  Any event that you observe will have unique
values for these numbers.  The theory of relativity seeks to
understand how others might perceive this same event from their point
of view.  Will your x,y,z, and t be the same as theirs?  How might
they differ?  How does this depend upon the *relative* motion of the
two observers?

These are the questions that Einstein sought to clarify.  The central
premise of his theory is that the speed of light is *the same* for all
observers, irrespective of their motion.  If this is indeed true, then
certain "weird" things must happen as objects approach the speed of
light: mass increases, length decreases, and time passes more slowly.

Seriously - get the "Brief History of Time" video and see how far you
get with it.

Or - go straight to the REAL expert - Einstein:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0517884410/qid=1049627938/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-0489312-3918266?v=glance&s=books

This book begins at an easy pace and has lots of "everyday" examples,
especially if you like trains :-)

OKAY... lemme try.

How many space inches is a "foot" of time? Answer: minus 12 inches, or
one nanosecond.

Why can't you stick your arm in the time direction like you can stick
it in the "up" direction?  Because, though time is just another
"direction" you can move, like up/down, left/right, etc., the
difference is that distances and lengths of lines in this direction
are all NEGATIVE NUMBERS.  Specifically, the spatial distance
corresponding to a positive time interval must involve the square root
of minus one.  Here's why:

A time duration in spatial terms is cT, or the distance light goes in
that time.  We observe that time lengths are negative space-lengths
from the 4D distance metric:

D = SQRT ( X_squared + Y_squared + Z_squared MINUS cT_squared)

See, since light travels one foot in a nanosecond (about how fast your
computer can add two numbers), the D = cT conversion tells us that a
nanosecond of time is one foot, or 12 inches.

However, because of the negative term in the 4D distance metric, a
positive foot would be a negative time interval, so no positive amount
of time is a foot of space.  Likewise, no positive spatial distance
corresponds to a particular (positive) amount of time.  BUT: a
positive amount of time does equal the NEGATIVE of some ordinary 3D
length.

Interestingly, for an object to not move at all in 4D space (i.e. it's
spacetime interval = zero = neither spacelike or timelike), the object
must be on the null cone.  That is, from a 3D point of view, it's
travelling at c.

So in a wierd way, the only objects actually at rest are moving at the
speed of light!

...see, now you're not confused anymore!  
:-)

By the way, the reason objects get shorter when they approach the
speed of light is exactly the same reason that the shadow of a pencil
gets shorter when you rotate the pencil (look up "foreshortening" in
the dictionary).  But that, little Adam, is another story!