Alex McColgan

The pole would still see itself as a 40m pole, never a 20m one.

Even worse, now length contraction is happening to the barn, so the barn is even less than its original 20m length, now just 10m from the perspective of the pole.

So how does a 40 meter pole fit inside a 10 meter barn with both doors closed?

It sounds impossible.

Surely this would result in broken poles or barn doors.

But this is not what the barn sees.

So how can two different observers looking at the same event see two completely different things happen?

Have we entered a state of quantum superposition, where the pole is both in and not in the barn?

Are we about to split apart the universe into differing multiverses?

Or is special relativity wrong?

No, our perception of reality is wrong.

There is an answer to this, but you're not going to like it.

Watch closely.

According to relativity,

This is what would happen from the pole's point of view.

The pole enters the barn just like we would expect, and then, there.

Did you see it?

Perhaps, but what did you just see?

You just saw an example of the myth of simultaneity.

And remember, this is really what happens according to special relativity.