Pentcho, et al
I found the translation of "Einstein Relativity Happiest Thought" that you linked a bit better than some others that I have read.
I jotted down excerpts and put a comment underneath each one. Einstein's thinking was reasonable in the circumstance of the day, 100 years ago. The question is whether we have not had new evidence that was unavailable to Einstein then, which are of fundamental significance to his theory.
p.114, Light Ether and the Movement of Matter... Soon, one pondered the question of what kind of substance this ether should be perceived of. Is it akin to a fluid or to a solid? The fact of polarizability of light led to the conception that the oscillations of light are transversal oscillations, that is, oscillations as they occur only in solid but not in fluid bodies. This led to the conception of the ether as a kind of solid body, i.e., a substance that resists changes of shape or relative motions of its parts by virtue of a lively elastic resistance. It seemed to behave like a quasi-rigid body that penetrates all matter
If Space is substance, can it move in the same manner that matter moves? Can a part of space move to another part of space? What would such a space leave behind when it moves, and where will the region of space at its destination go to? It is therefore clear that if space moves, its motion will not be by moving from one place to another. The only motion that remains possible if for a region of space to cease to exist, and for a region of space hitherto non-existent to start to exist. That is moving from "somewhere" to "nowhere", and from "nowhere" to "somewhere". If space moves thus, then it would behave like a quasi-rigid body.
p.115 i.e., the movement of a non-light-refracting fluid has no influence upon the propagation velocity of the light penetrating it.
The corollary to this is that the movement of a light-refracting fluid has influence upon the propagation of the light penetrating it. Now, Dark Matter was unknown to exist in Einstein's day. Today, all but only a few scientists in the mainstream acknowledge its abundance everywhere, in fact dwarfing the normal matter (baryonic), almost 9:1. Dictating the motion of the Sun, talk less of the tiny blue appendage called Earth. Gravitationally influential to be the agent holding our Galaxy together. It is strange and almost unthinkable that given this abundance, the Earth does not have any of this abundant matter in its atmosphere gravitationally interacting with it and influencing the propagation of light at its surface and at an altutude above it.
p.116. One would expect, for example, that the speed of light in a vacuum in the direction of the ether wind amounts to c+v, in the opposite direction c-v, when v is the velocity of the earth relative to the ether. In general, one would
expect with optical and electromagnetic experiments that the orientation of the apparatus relative to the direction of the ether wind should show some influence...., p.117...But no effect ever could be verified that would allow for an interpretation as the action of the ether wind
The same way, Air does not allow the expectation that the speed of sound show c+v, in the opposite direction c-v, when v is the velocity of the earth, because the medium of propagation has no relative velocity to the Earth, is the same way that earth-bound Dark Matter will not allow the speed of light to show c+v, or c-v, because the medium of propagation, Earth-bound Dark Matter has no relative velocity to the Earth.
p.140 Second, this consequence shows that the law of the constancy of the speed of light no longer holds, according to the general theory of relativity, in spaces that have gravitational fields. As a simple geometric consideration shows, the curvature of light rays occurs only in spaces where the speed of light is spatially variable. From this it follows that the entire conceptual system of the theory of special relativity can claim rigorous validity only for those space-time domains where gravitational fields (under appropriately chosen coordinate systems) are absent.
In other words, special relativity is not valid in spaces that have gravitational fields according to Einstein. But the room in which Michelson and Morley performed their experiment in 1887 had Earth's gravitational field as a witness. If special relativity holds only where gravitational fields (under appropriately chosen coordinate systems) are absent, then this experiment cannot be called to testify as a witness of truth as to the validity of the postulate which Special relativity depends on (i.e. the constancy of the speed of light).
p.142 From this follows that a clock on the surface of a celestial body runs more slowly than the same clock when it floats (at rest) somewhere out in space or when it sits on the surface of a smaller celestial body. Every system is to be considered as a "clock" which by virtue of internal laws and periodically occurring processes is endowed with a specific frequency, that is, e.g., an atom that can emit or absorb a certain spectral line. When compared to the spectral lines generated by an element on earth the spectral lines generated or absorbed by the same element at the surface of the sun then must show a shift toward the red that is equivalent to a Doppler effect of about 0.6 km/sec
A truth from the horse's mouth directly in Pentcho's direction. Frequency is slower at the surface of a celestial body than at a height. This has been verified by the actual data in the Pound and Rebka experiment, as well as in the Gravity Probe A.
If the density of Earth-bound dark matter varies with height as with all matter, then it is this variation in matter density that directly act as the material agent of gravity on 'periodically occurring processes', which is misinterpreted as "Gravity acting on Clocks/ Time".
p.149. Again, "empty" space seems to be endowed with physical properties, that is, not physically empty as it appeared in the special theory of relativity. Therefore, one can say the ether has been resurrected in the theory of general relativity, even though in a (newer) more sublime form. The ether of the general theory of relativity differs from the one in old optics by not being a substance in the sense of mechanics. Not even the concept of motion can be applied to it. Nevertheless, the idea of relativity leads to the solution of the problem of gravitation. For short (and simplicity) we shall call a domain (or space) where the special theory of relativity is valid a "Galilean space."
Welcome Einstein back home. A domain where the velocity of the Earth's motion does not influence light arrival times on Earth surface is a Galilean Space. Just as obtains for the velocity of Sound. What we don't know and need to find out is a medium that can do for Light what Air does for Sound.
Then if Space itself as opposed to matter, including Dark Matter is endowed with physical characteristics as Einstein says, then it can vibrate and propagate waves. And as already mentioned above, the usual concept of motion cannot be applied to it, except in the manner above.
All boils down to one postulate, that overrides all others in its fundamentality: the non-zero dimensional point (the tiniest possible region of space) does not have an eternal existence, but can appear and disappear spontaneously, or when induced to do so.
It is the basis for motion and why Zeno's Atlanta will always complete and start his race. It is the reason why dx, the infinitessimal in Calculus can be physically effective and mathematically sum up to x, even though it is not given a finite value mathematically and can even be wrongly said to equal zero. It is the reason why one region of space is called space and another region exhibits attributes of appearance/disappearance that we call mass. It is the basis for why 'action at a distance' is actually 'action IN a distance' due to disappearance (attraction) and appearance (repulsion) of space. It is the basic process for Cosmology, where "somewhere" can arise from "nowhere" and vice versa (ref. Big bang and Big Crunch). How can such a simple event be so powerful in its various applications as listed? Indeed, it is the fundamental event.
How can something that is not an equation fundamentally explain what mass is?, what motion is? what space is?
Perhaps, that is why J.A. Wheeler is quoted to have said, "To my mind there must be, at the bottom of it all, not an equation, but an utterly simple idea.
And to me that idea, when we discover it, will be so compelling, so inevitable, that we will say to one another, 'Oh, how beautiful. How could it have been otherwise?'"
Regards,
Akinbo
