An 11-million-mile tall dancer moves accross the solar system and is viewed from the earth and from a spaceship moving at nearly light velocity relative to the earth. The observers on earth and on the spaceship cannot agree whether the dancer first moved her hand or her foot. Even after taking into account their relative motion and the finite speed of light they cannot agree which event "really" took place first. Unlike the Newtonian concept of time there is no universal time according to the special relativity theory.

Heinz R. Pagels says, "or imagine two ordinary sized people, one on the Earth, and the other on a spaceship moving at nearly light speed. Both have front row seats to watch a performance of an eleven-million-mile-tall dancer who moves across the solar system as if it were a stage. It is a marvelous performance; and later they discuss it but cannot agree on what they saw. The viewer on the spaceship says the dancer first moved her arm and then her foot, but the viewer on Earth saw the events in reverse order. Even if they try to analyze the motion of the dancer taking into account the finite speed of light and the motion of the spaceship and the Earth, they cannot agree. The reason is that the second postulate of special relativity -- that the speed of light is constant -- denies the existence of a universal time for all observers. Even the order of events in time can be different for observers moving relative to one another; there is no absolute meaning to such time orderings ."