Series #5 - Theories and Theories
A.
- In order to understand the physics of relativity, we must
understand
the main physical mechanism that is responsible for "length
contraction" and "time dilation". Do you know which physical
mechanism
intervene in the atoms of matter (or elsewhere) so that
lengths are
contracted and time is dilated? Nobody knows. That is the
reason for
which Einstein said that nobody understands relativity (even
if we can
make numerical predictions). Including Gerber and Einstein,
absolutely
none of the eleven authors above give a clue. However, I heard
this
question repeated so many times by hundreds of people. Anyhow,
length
contraction and time dilation are considered as the basic
phenomena in
relativity even if we do not know what happens.
We
can
calculate
predictions
of
relativistic
phenomena as suggested by
the authors above, but no author ever really explained what
happens to
the atoms. We must conclude that we do not know what is
going on.
REFERENCE
1-
Die
Räumliche
und
zeitliche
Ausbreitung
der
Gravitation. Von
Paul
Gerber. Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik Vol.
43,
Pages 93-104
(1898).
Also: Paul Gerber, Die
Fortplfanzungsgeschwindigkeit der Gravitation, Annalem der
Physik, Vol
52, p. 415-444, 1917
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theories-5.html
Updated
Sept.
1999