## söndag 8 september 2019

### The Special Relativity of Swedish Society

Einstein's special theory of relativity SR is so strange that it is difficult to comprehend how strange it is, since that requires first to comprehend what the theory is all about, and secondly to comprehend that it is nonsense.

Let me make an effort to explain SR in the setting of an analogy with Swedish Society SS, to see how absurd SR is.

Let me then recall that SR/SS is concerned with the coordination of views of different observer/citizens $X$ each using a space-time coordinate system/value system  $(x,t)$ with $x$ space and $t$ time in the SR setting. SR/SS is based on the following postulate:
• The speed of light is equal to 1 as measured by all observers. (SR)
• The speed of the Swedish Society is optimal equal to 1 as measured by all citizens. (SS)
It is also acknowledged that observers/citizens move with constant speed $0\le v\lt 1$ with respect to each other.

Consider now any two observers/citizens $X$ using an $(x,t)$-system and $X^\prime$ using an $(x^\prime ,t^\prime )$-system. Suppose now that $X^\prime$ as viewed by $X$ in the $(x,t)$-system moves with (constant) velocity $v$. Then $X$ has reason to predict that the speed of light/SS for $X^\prime$ should be $1-v$ as the relative velocity in the $(x,t)$-system. But that conflicts with the postulate that $X^\prime$ must measure the speed of light/SS to be 1. How to handle this conflict between the views of $X$ and $X^\prime$?

Einstein's idea is to to ask $X^\prime$ to put on special glasses (in the form of the Lorentz transformation) connecting the $(x^\prime ,t^\prime)$-system to the $(x,t)$-system, allowing $X^\prime$ to look into the $(x,t)$ system and then see that the speed of light/SS in the $(x^\prime ,t^\prime )$-system indeed is the postulated 1, and not the $1-v$ as predicted (but not really observed) by $X$. It is no problem to construct such glasses (Lorentz transformation) by suitably distorting the view of $X^\prime$ when looking into the system of $X$ as the fellow citizen of $X^\prime$.

An effect of the distorting glasses is that $X^\prime$ views $X$ to be smaller (space contraction) and slower (time dilation). And by symmetry this view is shared by $X$ vs $X^\prime$.

Summary 1: All observers/citizens are thus equal and all measure the same optimal speed of light/SS equal to 1 in their respective system, as the basic postulate.

Any observer/citizen $X$ using an $(x,t)$-system views any other $X^\prime$ moving with speed $v$ relative to $X$ to have a relative speed $1-v$ in $(x,t)$-system, while with special glasses $X^\prime$ views the speed to be 1 in conformity with the basic postulate, special glasses which make $X$ appear to be both smaller and slower to $X^\prime$.

Summary 2: All observers are equal but everybody views the other to truly be inferior.

Is this the essence of Swedish Society and SR? Is it good physics/society or just nonsense?

Summary 3: Note that the view of the other as being smaller is not considered to correspond to viewing a person at distance, which can give the impression that the person is smaller than you, which we all know is just an illusion and not any real shrinking by distance. If you don't understand that, you are in trouble, and if you do, then SR will mean trouble to you.

Compare with  Many-Minds Relativity where all observers are equal and there are no distorting glasses forcing everybody to see the same thing, while moving with different speeds.

SR concerns the view of one observer on the view of another observer with the views demanded to be connected by the Lorentz transformation. SR does not compare the independent views of different observers, which is pointless since the views are supposed to be the same. SR is thus a theory about views on views and not about views on physical phenomena.

MMR compares different independent views of different observers on physical phenomena and seeks common aspects.

SR is a form of command physics dictating that measurements of the speed of light must give the same value in all inertial systems independent of translation with constant velocity. The dictate is fulfilled by dictating that space-time coordinates in different systems to be connected by the Lorentz transformation. But you cannot dictate physics. Physics concerns "what is" and not "what must be seen". In the same way real politics is about "what is and can be done" and not "what must be".

The typical reaction by a professional modern physicist on the many mysteries of SR, is that the "strangeness" of SR is a true expression of the fact that "physics is strange", or more precisely, "the stranger the better". Like Swedish Society?