In recent posts I have been searching for the source of the paradoxes/contradictions of Einstein's special theory of relativity SR. My objective is to understand why SR is so confusing. Here is the result of my search in short form:
Ingredients of SR:
- Observers.
- Measuring Apparatus.
- Coordinate systems (inertial systems moving with constant velocity with respect to each other).
- An Observer with Measuring Apparatus at rest in a coordinate system measures the same constant speed of light = c independent of the motion of the light source in the coordinate system.
- What will Observer1 observe concerning propagation of light in S2? (Q)
We understand that Einstein separates Observer from Measuring Apparatus, which breaks the logic of the Postulate of SR, and leads to asking the question (Q) which should not/cannot be asked. When Einstein insists on answering the question, which cannot be asked, he breaks the logic and paradoxes and contradictions result. This connects to Wittgenstein’s: Whereof you cannot speak, you have to keep quiet.
An example of a question which cannot be posed is the showpiece of medieval scholasticism:
- How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
To see a contradiction between theory and observation does not require much imagination, but to understand a logical inconsistency may require more, and so people can get fooled more easily by incorrect logic than incorrect facts.
In Many-Minds Relativity logical reasonable questions are posed based on the Postulate of SR.
Summary: If a theory, like SR, contains paradoxes/contradictions it may be because the theory breaks logic. This is the case with SR where the paradoxes/contradictions result from seeking to answer a question which breaks the logic of the Postulate of SR.
This was in fact acknowledged by Einstein in his 1905 article stating that the Postulates of SR appear to be contradictory, yet he continued, towards immense fame...:
- We will raise this conjecture (the purport of which will hereafter be called the “Principle of Relativity”) to the status of a postulate, and also introduce another postulate, which is only apparently irreconcilable with the former, namely, that light is always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity c which is independent of the state of motion of the emitting body.


It is confusing because one beam of light in the Michelson-Morley experiment, must move at a different speed than the other beam, right next to it, while the Earth orbits the Sun.
SvaraRadera