tisdag 23 maj 2023

Einstein's Principle of Relativity vs Free Society


In the previous post we searched for the basic postulates of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and came upon Einstein's Principle of Relativity EPR presented as follows on Wikipedia:

As always with Einstein, there is an ambiguity both concerning "the same form" and "admissible coordinate systems". In any case the key example is Maxwell's wave equations for the propagation of light in a vacuum which read the same letter by letter under Lorentz coordinate transformations, which Einstein took as leading model when formulating Einstein's equations to include the coordinate system itself (space-time geometry) in a new bewildering form of mathematics/physics (understood by nobody including Einstein himself). 

Ok, so "same form" appears to mean letter by letter or identically the same, or invariant. This is not the case with Maxwell's equations under a Galilean transformation, as the fundamental connection between $(x,t)$ space-time observations by two observers A and B in two Euclidean systems moving with constant velocity $v$ with respect to each other, a situation making perfect physics sense with space coordinates simply shifted by $v\times t$. 

But a wave equation like Maxwell's changes form under Galilean transformation and so according to Einstein is not admissible, while Lorentz transformation is admissible. This means that A and B are not allowed to freely make observations in their respective coordinate system and then seek to coordinate the best they can as in Many-Minds Relativity, but B is dictated to observe what A has observed and vice versa with the connection given by Lorentz. 

On the other hand, Newton's equations of motion are invariant under Galilean transformations, which thus appear to be "admissible", but not so to Einstein who insists that because they are not Lorentz invariant they have to be dismissed and be replaced by Einstein's equations.   

A comparison is natural between a free society where independent citizens are free to express what they observe (under e g Galilean transformations) and compare/coordinate, and a dictatorship with BigBrother dictating what can be expressed independent of individual observation (under e g Lorentz transformation). 

In this perspective EPR expresses that we all have "the same form" as long as we all use "admissible frames of reference". Einstein's principle of relativity then paradoxically expresses absolute equality without any relativity with BB dictating what is "admissible" to observe. 

Hopefully this can help to handle the syndrome of "relativity theory anxiety" which is widely spread and like "climate anxiety" makes life miserable for many people. The cure is in both cases a little bit of rational thinking. 

In short: Einstein's basic idea that laws of physics must take the same form in different coordinate systems is so directly contradictory that only a god-like mind could come up with to a human mind such a strange idea. But it so happened and it changed the meaning of the science of physics from classical relativity to modernity of equality and so opened to "the crisis of modern physics" witnessed by so many.


 

Inga kommentarer:

Skicka en kommentar