The flight path of the fly is moot in the example - i.e. whether he is flying in a straight line in the car, circling your head or zig-zagging. In the example, it's simply the distance being covered over a certain amount of time and to the observer watching him from a roadside table, the total distance and total time, i.e. cumulative.
Likewise, since the fly-watching observer in the example is under the same gravitational pull of the earth, the distance shortened by the West-East rotation of the earth is moot. The observer is being taken on the earth's surface in the same direction and speed as the fly and the car.
At higher elevations, even while orbiting within the gravitational well of the earth, the differences would be more measurable. Likewise, the reduction of distance traveled by a man jumping West (or added by jumping East) would be moot though the affect would be measurable at higher elevations, i.e. away from the gravitational well.
This has been tested also concerning time. The lower the gravity, the faster time elapses. Conversely, the higher the gravity, the slower time elapses. So if you were in the vicinity of a black hole for a week, for instance, 40 years may have elapsed on earth.
Interestingly flights going East-West take longer than flights going West-East not in contradiction of these factors but because of the West-East direction of the jet streams (tail winds.)
The example I used presumes that, except for the fly-watching observer, mph observations are absolute, i.e. not relative to an observer "in" space/time.
For instance, if the observer were "in" the space/time fabric between the Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda - the 486,000 miles our solar system travels in an hour would be so small by comparison to the size of the Milky Way, that the whole Milky Way galaxy might appear to him as if it were moving in "slow motion."
Inhabitants of space/time all suffer from the "observer problem."
Only God the Creator can objectively perceive His creation. He and He alone sees "all that there is" all at once. Every where. Every when. And He alone knows the full number and types of dimensions (space, time, etc.)
That He cares to observe thrills me. For without that will, there would be no justice, no objective Truth - it would all be observer relative.
And that He numbers every hair on our heads - despite what we mortals can perceive about of the cosmos or the quantum - comforts me.
God's Name is I AM.
What a SPLENDID observation/insight, dearest sister in Christ!!!
And Heaven Forfend! that "truth" is something that can be discerned by a public opinion poll (for example) and not as something written into the very Foundation of the World, not to mention into each and every human soul. ...
Definitely I believe the following, as you wrote:
Only God the Creator can objectively perceive His creation. He and He alone sees "all that there is" all at once. Every where. Every when. And He alone knows the full number and types of dimensions (space, time, etc.)Not to mention the very number of "hairs on our head." Even those of us who still have hair on our heads cannot "number" them at all....
There is comfort in God's indefeasible Truth (LOGOS). It is the very origin and foundation of everything that naturally exists in our World; it is the source of both Natural and Moral law, which in mutual interdependence pervade the Universe, including the universe of men's minds. It is the source and paradigmatic order of Life and the everlasting Sustainer and Savior of Life — of human life in particular, and not by accident.
Thank you so very much, dearest sister Alamo-Girl! I find your postings on the math and science aspects of "problems" enormously illuminating!
You are so faithful in giving an accurate description of what you, an observer strong in the maths and sciences, have "observed."
What your observation points to is the everlasting mutual interdependence of Faith and Reason.
Yet most people nowadays (I gather) cannot even begin to imagine the problem you describe, let alone deal with a "description" of it. You "see" through your Christian eyes (and ears). They seemingly do not have a clue about what you are saying. At least, nobody comments on it, or asks further questions.
Too bad.
Thank you ever so much, dearest sister, for your outstanding essay/post!