Tom
"Einstein doesn't need your help telling him what he wrote". Indeed, I am just quoting what he wrote.
I cannot understand the point of your response, there is no gravitation in SR, Einstein said so. So nothing is curved, or accelerates, or changes dimension. Einstein said so.
1 First part of the argument:
The first order of possible dimension alteration (ie from movement through space (ether), is 'written off' as being omnipresent (if it occurs at all anyway), or non-existent because most light is created within the earth's atmosphere This all relating back to the presumptions about light speed, ether, earth movement, the apparent result of M&M, etc, etc, which sparked off the whole train of thought. See quotes below:
Michelson 1881: "Assuming then that the ether is at rest, the earth moving through it, the time required for light to pass from one point to another on the earth's surface, would depend on the direction in which it travels". Further on Michelson writes: "If, therefore, an apparatus is so constructed as to permit two pencils of light, which have traveled over paths at right angles to each other, to interfere, the pencil which has traveled in the direction of the earth's motion, will in reality travel 4/100 of a wave-length farther than it would have done, were the earth at rest".
Lorentz 1904: "Let us take in the first place the case of a system without translation....It will therefore be impossible to detect an influence of the Earth's motion on any optical experiment, made with a terrestrial source of light". "In the second place, if in two points of a system, rays of light of the same state of polarization are propagated in the same direction, the ratio between the amplitudes in these points may be shown not to be altered by a translation".
Poincaré (July 1905) On the Dynamics of the Electron, introduction:
"It seems at first sight that the aberration of light and the optical and electrical phenomena connected to them, will provide us a means of determining the absolute motion of the Earth, or rather its motion, not in relation to the other stars, but in relation to the ether. Fresenel had already tried it, but he recognized soon that the motion of the earth does not alter the laws of refraction and reflection. Similar experiments...failed as well. It seems that this impossibility of demonstrating an experimental evidence for absolute motion of the Earth is a general law of nature; we are naturally lead to admit this law, which we will call the Postulate of Relativity and admit it without restriction".
Einstein (1922) Ether and The Theory of Relativity:
"It may be added that the whole change in the conception of the ether which the special theory of relativity brought about, consisted in taking away from the ether its last mechanical quality, namely, its immobility". "To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatever. The fundamental facts of mechanics do not harmonize with this view". "What is fundamentally new in the ether of the general theory of relativity as opposed to the ether of Lorentz consists in this, that the state of the former is at every place determined by connections with the matter and the state of the ether in neighbouring places, which are amenable to law in the form of differential equations; whereas the state of the Lorentzian ether in the absence of electromagnetic fields is conditioned by nothing outside itself, and is everywhere the same".
2 Second part of the argument:
Through the misconceptualisation of time (Poincare's simultaneity, with time being reified into reality with the spacetime model of reality), inadvertently, a non-existent variance (ie time) was introduced into the mix of variables. And then this was used to resolve the "unsatisfactory" [Lorentz theory] aspect, whereby "It [Lorentz theory] appeared to give preference to one system of coordinates of a particular state of motion (at rest relative to the aether) as against all other systems of co-ordinates in motion with respect to this one". That is, it was deemed that the "apparent preference" was just that, apparent. It being no more than a reflection of the differential in 'local time'. And was therefore 'resolved' so long as Lorentz transformations were applied.
However, the real point is that the "unsatisfactory" aspect actually arises because of the original hypothesis of dimension alteration, which, in addition to possible effect of movement through the ether, occurs (supposedly) when there is changing momentum, because there is a common cause, ie a differential in gravitational force incurred. The factor is not momentum, that is a consequence, like dimension alteration. Now, dimension alteration may or may not be correct, physically, but it is still residual in the theory. It just manifests under the guise of time variance. So the problems are 'resolved' in SR, because there are no gravitational forces, and therefore no dimension alteration, and only uniform motion. See relevant quotes below:
Einstein (1921), A Brief Outline of the Development of the Theory of Relativity:
"The theory [Lorentz] appeared to be unsatisfactory only in one point of fundamental importance. It appeared to give preference to one system of coordinates of a particular state of motion (at rest relative to the aether) as against all other systems of co-ordinates in motion with respect to this one. In this point the theory seemed to stand in direct opposition to classical mechanics, in which all inertial systems which are in uniform motion with respect to each other are equally justifiable as systems of co-ordinates (Special Principle of Relativity)".
"A more searching analysis of the physical significance of space and time rendered it evident that the Galileo transformation is founded on arbitrary assumptions, and in particular on the assumption that the statement of simultaneity has a meaning which is independent of the state of motion of the system of co-ordinates used. It was shown that the field equations for vacuo satisfy the special principle of relativity, provided we make use of the equations of transformation stated below:... [Lorentz]"
"Now in order that the special principle of relativity may hold, it is necessary that all the equations of physics do not alter their form in the transition from one inertial system to another, when we make use of the Lorentz transformation for the calculation of this change. In the language of mathematics, all systems of equations that express physical laws must be co-variant with respect to the Lorentz transformation".
Einstein (1922) Ether and The Theory of Relativity:
"It may be added that the whole change in the conception of the ether which the special theory of relativity brought about, consisted in taking away from the ether its last mechanical quality, namely, its immobility".
"To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatever. The fundamental facts of mechanics do not harmonize with this view".
"What is fundamentally new in the ether of the general theory of relativity as opposed to the ether of Lorentz consists in this, that the state of the former is at every place determined by connections with the matter and the state of the ether in neighbouring places, which are amenable to law in the form of differential equations; whereas the state of the Lorentzian ether in the absence of electromagnetic fields is conditioned by nothing outside itself, and is everywhere the same. The ether of the general theory of relativity is transmuted conceptually into the ether of Lorentz if we substitute constants for the functions of space which describe the former, disregarding the causes which condition its state. Thus we may also say, I think, that the ether of the general theory of relativity is the outcome of the Lorentzian ether, through relativation".
Einstein S> 1916, section 26
"In accordance with the special theory of relativity, certain co-ordinate systems are given preference for the description of the four dimensional, space-time continuum. We called these Galileian co-ordinate systems. For these systems, the four co-ordinates x, y, z, t, which determine an event or, in other words, a point of the four dimensional continuum, are defined physically in a simple manner, as set forth in detail in the first part of this book. For the transition from one Galileian system to another, which is moving uniformly with reference to the first, the equations of the Lorentz transformation are valid. These last form the basis for the derivation of deductions from the special theory of relativity, and in themselves, they are nothing more than the expression of the universal validity of the law of transmission of light for all Galileian systems of reference".
Einstein S> 1916, section 27
"In the first part of this book we were able to make use of space-time co-ordinates which allowed of a simple and direct physical interpretation, and which, according to Section 26, can be regarded as four dimensional Cartesian co-ordinates. This was possible on the basis of the law of the constancy of the velocity of light. But according to Section 21, the general theory of relativity cannot retain this law. On the contrary, we arrived at the result that according to this latter theory the velocity of light must always depend on the co-ordinates when a gravitational field is present. In connection with a specific illustration in Section 23, we found that the presence of a gravitational field invalidates the definition of the coordinates and the time, which led us to our objective in the special theory of relativity".
