Alex McColgan

Essentially, this isn't too unreasonable, as we've just turned the first diagram slightly on its side.

Now, the sequence works.

With this,

the part of the barn furthest from the pole meets it first, and the pole sees the orange door shut and open.

Then, as time goes on and the pole and the barn proceed further into the future, the pole's other end reaches the blue door, which also shuts, then opens.

Thanks to this vector in time and space,

it's possible for the barn to not hit either end of the pole with its shutting doors.

The order of events is right from the pole's point of view.

The barn's further orange back door shuts and opens before the barn's blue front door does.

This is what special relativity tells us should occur.

But do you see why this configuration is so strange?

It implies to me that the barn itself is not simultaneous while it is in motion.

And here's where we're jumping from the paradox into my own thoughts about it.

What do I mean by simultaneous?

I mean that we expect the barn to exist as a discrete entity at a single point in time.

It does exist, with every part of it happening at the same now, even if it's undergoing a little time dilation here and there.

But the barn the pole sees is not happening in a single now.

Part of it is ahead in time.

and part of it is lagging behind.

And you can see both parts at once.