Physics – Physics Education
Scientific paper
2006-03-30
Physics
Physics Education
36 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to the PIRT publication project
Scientific paper
This work deals with the questions of absolute space and relativity. In particular, an alternative derivation of the effects described by special relativity is provided, which is based on a description that assumes a privileged reference frame. The present theory follows the ideas of Lorentz and Poincare, abandoning a strict view of Einstein's "equivalence" of all inertial frames. The meaning of the Principle of Relativity is discussed and elucidated, and it is shown that it is not incompatible with the existence of a preferred, absolute, frame. Most scientists nowadays still consider the basic assumptions of the theory proposed here to be plain wrong. Moreover, they tend to see an irreconcilable conflict between the Lorentz-Poincare and the Einstein-Minkowski formulations. However, as stated by John Bell [Bell1988], although there is a stringent "difference in philosophy" between both views, "the facts of physics do not oblige us to accept one philosophy rather than the other". The validity of Bell's assertion is unambiguously demonstrated, and it is shown how and why both approaches do indeed agree in the description of (most of?) the physical phenomena. Evidently, the physical meaning of the different physical quantities - such as "time", "speed", "simultaneity" and "synchronization" - is quite different in both programmes. And yet, for perplexing it may look at first sight, the present theory, developed under the Lorentz-Poincare assumption of a preferred reference frame, somehow encompasses Einstein's theory. There is no conflict, as there is one theory. It is stressed that reality is not changed by the choices one makes to describe it, so it is not changed by the particular way in which the clocks have been set.
Abreu Rodrigo de
Guerra Vasco
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