Since Einstein released his theory of relativity, we’ve assumed that what is observed must be relative to us, the observer. We’ve placed great importance on recognizing the reference frame of any observed event. For instance, consider a bouncy ball bouncing in an airplane aisle.  From the person bouncing the ball from her seat, the ball seems to be moving up and down.  However, to a stationary observer who has xray vision and can see through the plane, the ball is not only moving up and down, but also West, with the airplane.

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Richard Feynman scoffs at the significance of reference frames, concluding that the concept of relativity has been blown out of proportion by “the philosophers.” Observation, he claims, is NOT always relative. Feynman asks us to consider light moving 182,000 miles per second in a car.  The car is itself moving 100,000 miles per second, but the light surely isn’t moving the speed of the car additionally, like the ball is in the plane.  Light is considered to have constant velocity, as Einstein suggested; regardless of our reference frame, its speed remains constant.