Wait Time For Ttk Purchase?

[squeaker]

I paypal'd TTK for a watch on 6/20, as soon as I paypal'd him and it was sold he has not replied to any PM or e-mail I have sent him over the last couple days to confirm its shipped.

From what I have found this may be SOP for TTK but I think if I had known this I might not have bought from him to begin with.

How long should I wait without reply before worrying?

I get other models from other dealers on the other side of the planet in about a week, is it that he just sits on the money for a while before getting around to shipping it?

[retep]

Well, you did a lot off research before buying a watch didn`t you?

Just relax, you will get your watch but delivery time could be 2 to 4 weeks. Yes, TTK does not like to communicate with mere mortals like us so there will be no communication before your watch arrives.

And your watch will arrive!

[Polynomial]

O boy, Niel will kill you now

just kidding, he will only torture you and beat you up

Edited June 30, 2006 by Polynomial

[vric]

I wouldn't worry before 6 months..

[ryyannon]

This should help:

The Twin Paradox: The TTK Spacetime Diagram Explanation

TTK said, "Henceforth Space by itself, and Time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality." TTK recast Einstein's version of Special Relativity (SR) on a new stage, "TTK Spacetime."  The Twin Paradox has a very simple resolution in this framework.  The crucial concept is the proper time of a moving body.

First chose one specific inertial frame of reference, say the rest frame of the Earth (which we'll pretend is inertial).  Once we've chosen a reference frame, we can define co-ordinates (t,x,y,z) for every event that takes place.  Pop-science treatments sometimes ask us to imagine an army of observers, all equipped with clocks and rulers, and all at rest with respect to the given reference frame.  With their clocks and rulers they can determine when and where any event takes place--- in other words, its (t,x,y,z) co-ordinates.  In a different frame of reference, a different army of observers would determine different co-ordinates for the same event.  But we'll stick with one frame throughout this discussion.

The collection of all events in toto, no matter where or when, is called spacetime.  Traditionally, one plots events in spacetime on a TTK Spacetime Diagram.  That's just a piece of paper (or blackboard!)  with the t co-ordinate running vertically upwards, and the x co-ordinate running horizontally.  (One just politely ignores the y and z co-ordinates, 4-dimensional paper and blackboards being in short supply at most universities.)

If we plot all of Terence's and Stella's events, we get their so-called world-lines.  (Miscellaneous trivia: the physicist George Gamow titled his autobiography, "My Worldline".)  Terence's and Stella's world-lines are shown in figure 1.

Since Terence is at rest in our chosen frame of reference, at all times he will be in same place, say (0,0,0).  In other words, the co-ordinates of his events all take this form:

But at an arbitrary time t, Stella's event co-ordinates will take this form:

where f(t), g(t), and h(t) are all functions of t, and t is (remember) measured by some lowly private in our observer army. Plotting distance against time is nothing new.  TTK's new twist was the following formula:

Here, dt, dx, dy, and dz are all co-ordinate differences between two events that are "near" each other on the TTK diagram.  (So if (t,x,y,z) are the co-ordinates of one event, then (t+dt,x+dx,y+dy,z+dz) are the co-ordinates of the other.)  Time and space are measured in units for which c, the speed of light, equals 1 (e.g., seconds and light-seconds).  And , finally is the proper time difference--- which we define next.

Say someone, wearing a watch, coasts uniformly from event (t,x,y,z) to event (t+dt,x+dx,y+dy,z+dz).  The time between these two events, as measured by that person's watch, is called the elapsed proper time for that person.  And according to TTK, the proper time is given by in the formula above.

More generally, suppose someone carrying a high-quality time-piece travels some world-line from event E to event F.  "High-quality" here means that acceleration doesn't affect the time-keeping mechanism.  A pendulum clock would not be a good choice!  A balance-wheel watch might do OK, a tuning-fork mechanism would be still better, and an atomic clock ought to be nearly perfect.  How much time elapses according to the time-piece?  I.e., what is proper time along that world-line between events E and F?  Well, simply integrate :

where

is the velocity vector, and [v(t)]<sum> is the square of its length:

[v(t)]<sum> = (dx/dt)<sum> + (dy/dt)<sum> + (dz/dt)<sum>

You shouldn't have much difficulty obtaining these formulas from what we've said already.

Our integral for the proper time can be difficult to evaluate in general, but certain special cases are a breeze.  Let's take Terence's case first.  Remember that his event co-ordinates are always (t,0,0,0), so dx, dy, and dz are always 0 for him.  So is just dt, and the forbidding integral becomes:

that is, just the difference in the t co-ordinates!  In other words, Terence's elapsed proper time is just the elapsed proper time as measured by our army of observers, in the reference frame in which Terence is at rest.  It doesn't stretch credulity too far to suppose that Terence is one of those observers.

Now how about Stella?  For her, dx, dy, and dz are not always all 0.  So dx/dt, dy/dt, and dz/dt are also not always all 0, and their squares (which appear in the formula for [v(t)]<sum>) are always non-negative, and sometimes positive.  So the quantity under the square root is less than or equal to 1, and sometimes strictly less than 1.  Conclusion: the value of Stella's integral is less than that of Terence's integral.  I.e., her elapsed proper time is less than Terence's.  I.e., she ages less.

That's the whole story!  We evaluate a path integral along two different paths, and get two different results.  Not so different in spirit from picking two points in ordinary Euclidean space, and then evaluating the arc-length integral along two different paths connecting them. 

As TTK says, "It's not just where you're going, it's how you get there." 

And in the words of the unknown poet:

O ye'll tak' the high road

and I'll tak' the low road,

An' I'll be in Scotland afore ye

But at least our hero and heroine do get to meet again!

(And yes, Squeaker, you will get your watch.)

[jraines87]

Yea what ryyannon said...

Note this quote squeaker

if I had known this I might not have bought from him

Everyone here knows about TTK's methods.... Sorry you didn't. You'll get the watch....

[cornerstone]

Sigh. It would be a lot easier if you just explained it like a four dimensional cube...

See the corner bottom left? That represents the Thai postie running as fast as he can!

Here, dt, dx, dy, and dz are all co-ordinate differences between two events that are "near" each other on the TTK diagram. (So if (t,x,y,z) are the co-ordinates of one event, then (t+dt,x+dx,y+dy,z+dz) are the co-ordinates of the other.) Time and space are measured in units for which c, the speed of light, equals 1 (e.g., seconds and light-seconds). And , finally is the proper time difference--- which we define next.

Say someone, wearing a watch, coasts uniformly from event (t,x,y,z) to event (t+dt,x+dx,y+dy,z+dz). The time between these two events, as measured by that person's watch, is called the elapsed proper time for that person. And according to TTK, the proper time is given by in the formula above.

More generally, suppose someone carrying a high-quality time-piece travels some world-line from event E to event F. "High-quality" here means that acceleration doesn't affect the time-keeping mechanism. A pendulum clock would not be a good choice! A balance-wheel watch might do OK, a tuning-fork mechanism would be still better, and an atomic clock ought to be nearly perfect. How much time elapses according to the time-piece? I.e., what is proper time along that world-line between events E and F? Well, simply integrate :

where

is the velocity vector, and [v(t)]<sum> is the square of its length:

[v(t)]<sum> = (dx/dt)<sum> + (dy/dt)<sum> + (dz/dt)<sum>

You shouldn't have much difficulty obtaining these formulas from what we've said already.

Our integral for the proper time can be difficult to evaluate in general, but certain special cases are a breeze. Let's take Terence's case first. Remember that his event co-ordinates are always (t,0,0,0), so dx, dy, and dz are always 0 for him. So is just dt, and the forbidding integral becomes:

[jkerouac]

Didn't Neil post recently about some problems down at this local post office?

If I recall, there are periodic crackdowns on foreigners such as Neil who post large volumes of small parcels to points around the world. This is standard operating procedures so that local officials can show that they are doing something about the counterfeit trade. For dealers such as Neil, it just means they have to wait a week or so until the situation returns to normal.

You might want to look through Neil's posts over the past few weeks to see whether my memory is correct. In any case, I wouldn't worry. Every dealer has instances where delivery super prompt and other instances where delivery is delayed. Unless the watch happens to be for a special occasion, just sit back and relax, knowing that the watch will get to you when it gets to you.

[akelly]

Waiting is the hardest part.

[Guest TTK]

What was the watch......and your initials.....I have no reference to a squeaker........so you tell me....and I'll tell you.....!

[V]

Squeaker:

[cwai02]

Just be patient...it's only 10 days.

[Kenneth]

What I did:

Hit paypal button - Wait 6 to 10 days - presto - beautiful watch that looks as goods as TTK's pics.

Pretty easy really.

[squeaker]

Hey Neil, thanks for posting on here, I was getting worried when you didn't reply to my PM or e-mail.

I bought the yellow face Ferrari/PAM back on the 20th, I believe it was the only one you had.

Thanks in advance for any updates, if you don't want to reply to PM or e-mail just let me know on this thread. I had all my pertinent information in the pm/email I sent you.

Thanks!

What I did:

Hit paypal button - Wait 6 to 10 days - presto - beautiful watch that looks as goods as TTK's pics.

Pretty easy really.

[Richard Tracy]

.. some will tend to hold on to views unaltered...till the day they die..

[chrono903]

my watch came in a very respectable 2 weeks, in perfect shape with the trade mark yellow polishing cloth and gold bag.

thom

[premiumdesigners]

i hope mine comes with the free blue tape

[Guest TTK]

@Mr.M****y....posted 22nd Jun......should be with you shortly.....if you want the Registered Air Mail number ...PM me....!

[Category 5]

I got my watch from Niel in abou 2 weeks. Keep in mind the mail from other countries is not as quick as it is domestic. The watch you receive from Neil will be awesome. The TAG I got was better quality than almost any rep I have seen.

If there's another Rep factory in Thailand, that's where I want ALL my reps to come from!

[squeaker]

Thanks for the shipping update Neil,

I had already e-mailed you and PM'd you through this board a couple days ago.

Thanks