Posting #15:- "The Making of Observations in Relativistic Systems"

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"Great spirits have always encountered violent oppositions from mediocre minds." - A. Einstein

A while ago a program was presented on NOVA in which a physicist described an experiment. In this experiment he used two identical atomic clocks and transported one of them around the world in a jet aircraft. He observed that the transported clock recorded less elapsed time than the identical clock that remained in place. He concluded from this that time slowed down as a result of the aircraft's velocity. He asserted that "as far as he was concerned, time is what clocks measure". It is the purpose of this posting to examine the validity of his belief.

Suppose we consider an experiment in which we measure the price of gasoline in two different locations (reference frame #1 and reference frame #2) using the units of measurement existing at those locations and denoted as dollars and gallons in both. In reference frame #1 we observe that gasoline costs $1/gallon and in reference frame #2 we also observe that gasoline costs $1/gallon. We can assert from this that the price of gasoline is "a constant" (1$/gallon) between those locations that, for this example, are only 10 miles apart. Can we rigorously assert that the price of gasoline does not change ("is constant"} between those locations? The answer is that we cannot without further information. Suppose one of the locations was in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and the other location is across the river in Detroit, Michigan, USA? At the Canadian location, the price of gasoline would be measured in terms of Canadian dollars and Imperial Gallons while at the US location; the price of gasoline would be measured in US gallons and US dollars. Since the Imperial Gallon is 25% larger than the US gallon, the price of gasoline, while being "a constant" (invariant) between those locations, would not be "constant" between them except for the case where the Canadian dollar was worth 1.25 US dollars. In this experiment, in order to draw a legitimate conclusion it is necessary to take in consideration the relative sizes of the units of measurement for fluid and money at the two locations (reference frames) even though they have the same names.

The same requirement is incumbent on an experimenter who is making measurements between reference frames (elevation or velocity). Before we can draw any conclusion as to what is actually occurring between two reference frames which differ in elevation or velocity, we must first determine how the appropriate units of measurement are affected by the difference in reference frame and correct the readings made locally appropriately. (This is no different than the technique used by land surveyors when they correct their measurements of distance for the effects of ambient temperature on their steel tapes. I would assert that the science of physics should be at least as rigorous as the more mundane field of land surveying.) The information needed to make the corrections for reference frames that differ in velocity were provided in 1903 by Fitzgerald, Larmor, and Lorentz and are collectively known as the Lorentz Transformations. The resultant theory was denoted as the Lorentz Transformation-Aether Theory. Using these transformations, one finds that the effects of velocity are quite reasonable in terms of classical Newtonian Physics, THERE IS NO MYSTERY. In 1905 Dr. Einstein derived Special Relativity using mathematics applied to accepted physical laws. If one examines both theories one finds that they are actually the same theory since one may be derived from the other, with the Aether Relativity Theory being a special case solution of STR in which one of the infinite number of solutions that STR allows between the limits of +/- C represents the Aether but we are prevented from measuring that velocity with respect to it by the Lorentz Transformations and the velocity limit on communications imposed by the velocity of light.

When one examines the atomic clock experiment one must decide between one of two interpretations. One must consider the possibility of whether that velocity of the trip caused the moving clock to speed up during one part of its trip around the world and to slow up on the part so that the total elapsed time was consistent with the observation. The other interpretation was that the velocity made the rate of passage of time itself change due to its movement through space-time. In order to distinguish between the possibilities, it is necessary only necessary to consider the effects of a change in reference frame occurring when the observations are made and these observations are made at the same location and at the same velocity reference and, as a result, we must conclude that it was not time which slowed during the trip, it was the speed of the clock. (This conclusion may be made easier to accept when one recognizes that the experiment could have been set up, in principle, in a form akin the auto speed tests on the Bonneville Salt Flats in which the clock travels at a constant rate of speed and in a straight line in one direction and then is stopped and reversed indirection and returns to its starting point along the same straight line. All of the measurements would be made by identical clocks with the time required to turn the vehicle around subtracted from the time difference. Spacetime is not involved in this analysis.) Since all of the measurements of the actual experiment were made at the same location and velocity reference frame, the actual elapsed time must have been the same for both clocks one must conclude that it was the moving clock that slowed its speed and not a reduction of the actual passage of time.

The physicists assertion that "time is what clocks measure" is naive. "Time is what clocks measure after the assumed speed of the clock has been corrected for the change in size of the units of measurement for time resulting from velocity". (In other words, changing the velocity of the clock caused its scale factor to change. there are sound and easily understood physical reason as why this occurs.) Larmor was intelligent enough to provide the necessary correction factor (the Lorentz Transformation for Time and Dr. Einstein was considerate enough to derive it rigorously from basic principles.

The source material for this posting may be found in "The Einstein Hoax" (1997) ; "Gravity" (1987) ; and "Corrections to Special Relativity" (1997). EVERYTHING WHICH WE ACCEPT AS TRUE MUST BE CONSISTENT WITH EVERYTHING ELSE WE HAVE ACCEPTED AS TRUE, IT MUST BE CONSISTENT WITH ALL OBSERVATIONS, AND IT MUST BE MATHEMATICALLY VIABLE. PRESENT TEACHINGS DO NOT ALWAYS MEET THIS REQUIREMENT. THE WORLD IS ENTITLED TO A HIGHER STANDARD OF WORKMANSHIP FROM THOSE IT HAS GRANTED WORLD CLASS STATUS.

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