Special Relativity vs Newton

Continued conversation with chatGPT as expressing the view of many physicists, opens to the following insights (impossible to derive from a discussion with any single real physicist):

• The two basic postulates of SR (1. physical laws and 2. speed of light the same in all inertial systems) contain no real physics open to experimental testing and in particular are not sufficient to derive the Lorentz Transformation LT as expression of Lorentz invariance.
• The Lorentz transformation requires additional assumptions of unclear physical nature. 
• Simply adding LT as a postulate eliminates the role of the two basic postulates and makes SR into a prescription to be followed by observers with no clear connection to a real physics which does not care about time dilation, space contraction and relativistic mass as the core values of SR. This makes SR into a formal card game without physics as discussed in the previous post.

This is the situation facing a modern physicist: 

1. SR as theory without physical content as logical consequence of two basic postulates without physical content.
2. SR as LT as command to observers without clear connection to physics.

The reaction can only be silence: no discussion. This is how Einstein handled the situation by not commenting further on SR after early 1920s. 

The great achievement of Einstein, although counted as negative as concerns his Nobel Prize in 1921, is today viewed to be that he showed that Newton's mechanics is not correct physics and so has to be corrected into Einstein's relativistic mechanics according to SR. In short Newton is not Lorentz invariant. 

But Newton's mechanics is compatible with SR reduced to its basic postulates: Postulate 1 is fulfilled with Galilean invariance and Postulate 2 as well since Newton does not speak about light.

The great thing with chatGPT is that the discussion is open and that chatGPT mostly follows strict logic and when that is forgotten is ready to return.   

The greatest tragedy of modern physics is probably that Newton was dismissed in a modern world still based on Newton. 

Einstein asked: Newton, forgive me. He then speaks for all modern physicists.