söndag 18 september 2022

Corruption of Modern Physics 2: Special Theory of Relativity

  •  I neglected mathematics...because my intuition was not strong enough to differentiate the fundamentally important from the dispensable erudition. (Einstein 1900)
  • The question whether the Lorentz contraction does or does not exist is confusing. It does not really exist in so far as it does not exist for an observer who moves (with the rod); it really exists, however, in the sense that it can as a matter of principle be demonstrated by a resting observer. (Einstein 1911).

Continuing the recent posts on Einstein's mistaken idea of light of frequency $\nu$ as a stream of particles named photons, each photon carrying an energy of $h\nu$ with $h$ Plank's constant, let us recall the analysis of Einstein's 1905 Special Theory of Relativity SR  presented in the book Many-Minds Relativity and blog posts on special theory of relativity, showing that SR is not a theory about physics. This was admitted by Einstein, who quickly gave up SR to turn to General Theory of Relativity in an even deeper state of confusion, see above quote. With Einstein's theories of relativity modern physics was misled away from the reality of Enlightenment into the fiction of Modernity, from real to fake.       

Einstein describes the set up of SR as two observers $O$ and $O^\prime$ moving with constant velocity with respect to each other, each observer being equipped with a measuring rod to measure distance in space and a clock to measure time, with sticks and clocks of the same fabrication. 

The essence of SR is a coordinate transformation between an Euclidean space-time coordinate system $(x,t)$ used by $O$ and a $(x^\prime ,t^\prime)$-system used by $O^\prime$ connected by the Lorentz (simple linear coordinate) transformation with $x$ and $x^\prime$ one dimensional space coordinates and $t$ and $t^\prime$ time coordinates, taking the form

  • $x^\prime =\gamma (x-vt)$, $t^\prime = \gamma (t-vx)$, $\gamma =\frac{1}{\sqrt(1-v^2)}$,
  • $x =\gamma (x^\prime+vt^\prime )$, $t = \gamma (t^\prime+vx^\prime )$.

where $\vert v\vert <1$ is viewed to be express that the two systems are moving with respect to each other with constant speed $\vert v\vert <1$. The Lorentz transformation has the property that a $x = t$ is transformed into $x^\prime  = t^\prime$,  which Einstein viewed to express the same speed of light = 1 in both systems, as the basic postulate of SR

In particular, a light signal emitted at $(0,0)$ from a stationary source in the $(x,t)$-system is supposed to follow the trajectory $x=t$ for $t>0$ in the $(x,t)$-system, and similarly a light signal emitted at $(0,0)$ by a stationary source in the $(x^\prime,t^\prime )$-system is supposed to follow the trajectory $x^\prime =t^\prime $ for $t^\prime>0$ in the $(x^\prime ,t^\prime )$-system. 

Lorentz had introduced his transformation well before Einstein took it up, but Lorentz had been careful to note that his transformation was not to be interpreted as a transformation between physical coordinates

Unfortunately this was not understood by the young Einstein (with little training in physics), who instead came to believe that both systems must represent physical coordinates, because no system seemed to have any preference before the other as an expression of relativity. 

This led Einstein to consider the light signals emitted at $(0,0)$ in the two systems described above to be the same light signal, and then described by coordinates in the two systems connected by the Lorentz transformation, thus subject to strange effects of space contraction and time dilation. But a light signal emitted at $(0,0)$ in the $(x,t)$ system, is not the same as a light signal emitted at $(0,0)$ in the $(x^\prime ,t^\prime )$-system, because the light sources are moving with respect to each other. 

More precisely, a light source consists of a collection of atoms extended in space emitting electromagnetic waves over some period of time, and the physics of two such light sources moving with respect to each other is different even if overlapping at $(0,0)$. Einstein missed this completely crucial aspect by considering space time events supposedly identified by specific isolated space-time coordinates, but then events without physics.

The only reasonable set up from physical point of view is to require the observer/observational equipment to be stationary in the space coordinate system used, as explored in Many-Minds Relativity. A light source can be moving (then generating a Doppler effect), but the observer/observational equipment cannot be allowed to move in the coordinate system being used. To insist that this restriction must be broken, asking $O$ to make observations in the $(x^\prime ,t^\prime )$-system and vice versa, as Einstein did in his confused state, is to ask for mysteries/paradoxes, which cannot be resolved. Asking the speed of light to be independent of both source and observer is the same as introducing an ether medium common to all observers, which has never been found.  

The unavoidable conclusion is that SR does not describe any real physics and so the strange effects of space contraction and time dilation of SR are not real but only fiction. This should come as a relief for all students of modern physics struggling without success to understand what is only confusion, while teachers of modern physics are expected to claim that they understand that SR for sure is a correct physical theory always agreeing perfectly with observation.    

To take home:

  • The rate of a clock whether mechanical or atomic cannot be influenced by inertial motion. 
  • With light second as new (1983) SI unit of space or measuring rod, the speed of light by definition is constant = 1 to all observers, and so Einstein's basic postulate is an agreement (matter of principle) without real physics. A theory based on postulates without real physics cannot say anything about real physics. The Lorentz coordinate transformation as the essence of SR, does not describe any real physics, because its basic postulate is rather an agreement than physical necessity.

2 kommentarer:

  1. LOL@Klimate Katastrophe Kooks19 september 2022 kl. 09:12

    Einstein later corrected the mistakes made in SR, with GR, to include that light can only be a constant (here described as unity) in a constant gravitational field, and in an inertial frame.

    Of course, gravity being a long-range interaction and due to the Inverse Square Law, there's not really anywhere in the universe that has a constant gravitational field. All objects in the universe move, all objects interact via the long-range gravitational force, that interaction affects, however minutely or greatly, the gravitational force at any given point in space-time.

    Einstein reiterated this fact many times, a few examples of which are below:

    1913: “I arrived at the result that the velocity of light is not to be regarded as independent of the gravitational potential. Thus the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light is incompatible with the equivalence hypothesis.”

    The Equivalence Principle states that there is no functional difference between actual translational acceleration and gravitational acceleration.

    1916: “In the second place our result shows that, according to the general theory of relativity, the law of the constancy of the velocity of light in vacuo, which constitutes one of the two fundamental assumptions in the special theory of relativity and to which we have already frequently referred, cannot claim any unlimited validity.”

    1920: “Second, this consequence shows that the law of the constancy of the speed of light no longer holds, according to the general theory of relativity, in spaces that have gravitational fields. As a simple geometric consideration shows, the curvature of light rays occurs only in spaces where the speed of light is spatially variable.”

    This is how gravitational lensing (ie: the curvature of light rays around a gravitating body) occurs, which was what originally corroborated Einstein’s theory.

    Light doesn't follow the path of least-space, it follows the path of least-time. Gravitating bodies expand space, increase local quantum vacuum energy density, slow down time (which is why GPS satellites must account for being further away from Earth's gravity well (which would tend to make their clocks tick faster), and must account for their motion (which would tend to make their clocks tick slower), in order to remain synchronized with ground-based clocks... if they did not adjust for this, GPS units would be off by ~15 cm / day. GPS satellites typically correct once a week, for a maximum error of ~105 cm). Thus light, in seeking the path of least-time, tends to arc around gravitating bodies, the angle of that arc dependent upon the strength of the gravitational field.

    SvaraRadera
  2. LOL@Klimate Katastrophe Kooks19 september 2022 kl. 09:29

    That gives us some insight into why light cannot escape from black holes... it's not that the gravitational field of the black hole 'sucks in' the light with such force that it cannot escape, it's that light, in attempting to follow the path of least-time, arcs completely around the black hole and thus cannot escape.

    That also somewhat leads one to conclude that the CMB isn't really light from the origin of the universe, it's the distorted light from far beyond our cosmological particle horizon, distorted by trillions upon trillions of miles of gravitational lensing and collision with dust and larger bodies, until it's just a 'haze' of non-coherent radiation. Can't say that for sure, but it's a possibility that should be investigated. That opens a veritable Pandora's Box, though... it would mean the universe isn't accelerating in its expansion (if it were, we should have some stars or galaxies that we used to be able to see, that are now accelerating away from us at a rate faster than c, and thus we can no longer see them... we've never empirically observed that, though). And that would change pretty much everything as regards the geometry of the universe.

    SvaraRadera