Related papers: Einstein's Third Postulate
Solving special relativity paradoxes requires rigorous analysis of event timing, due to relative simultaneity in consequence of the Lorentz transformation. Since clock synchronisation is a convention in special theory of relativity, instead…
We discuss the emergence of time dilation as a normal feature expected of any system where a central processor may have to wait one or more clock cycles before concluding a local calculation. We show how the process of causal implication in…
Jean-Marc Ginoux's recent book, "Poincar\'e, Einstein and the Discovery of Special Relativity: An End to the Controversy" (2024), seeks to close the debate over the respective roles of Poincar\'e and Einstein. Yet what is presented as an…
In the famous Solvay 1927 conference, Einstein discussed a gedanken experiment involving a single photon diffracted at an aperture and impinging on a screen. He devised the example to support De Broglie's hypothesis of the pilot wave, and…
After a historical discussion of Einstein's 1907 principle of equivalence, a homogeneous gravitational field in Minkowski spacetime is constructed. It is pointed out that the reference frames in gravitational theory can be understood as…
We show that a derivation of the Lorentz-Einstein transformation based on length contraction or on time dilation is faster then "World's fastest derivation of the Lorentz transformation"
I will argue, pace a great many of my contemporaries, that there's something right about Boltzmann's attempt to ground the second law of thermodynamics in a suitably amended deterministic time-reversal invariant classical dynamics, and that…
This work explores Boltzmann's time hypothesis, which associates the perceived direction of "time flow" with the second law of thermodynamics. We discuss mechanisms that can be responsible for the action of the second law, for directional…
We revisit the problem of the Lorentz transformation of time-intervals in special relativity. We base our discussion on the time-interval transformation formula $ c\Delta t' = \gamma (c\Delta t - \vec{\beta} \cdot \Delta \vec{r}) $ in which…
Einstein's thesis ``A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions'' was the second of his five celebrated papers in 1905. Although it is -- thanks to its widespread practical applications -- the most quoted of his papers, it is less known…
Observations of the apparent times and positions of moving clocks as predicted by both `non-local' and `local' Lorentz Transformations are considered. Only local transformations respect translational invariance. Such transformations change…
The foundations of Einstein's first (1907) principle of equivalence are explored and their consequences are stated in terms of invariance under generalized Lorentz transformations, first explored by Hessenberg.
This note is by no means a comprehensive study of Minkowski's space-time formalism of special relativity. The mathematician, Hermann Minkowski was Einstein's former mathematics professor at the Z\"urich Polytechnic. During his studies at…
We present three natural but distinct formalisations of Einstein's special principle of relativity, and demonstrate the relationships between them. In particular, we prove that they are logically distinct, but that they can be made…
In a way similar to classical mechanics where we have the concept of inertial time as expressed in the motions of bodies, in the (special) theory of relativity we can regard the inertial time as the only notion of time at play. The inertial…
In an apparently unexplored region of relativistic spacetime, a simple thought experiment demonstrates that conjoined Lorentz transformations predict a proper clock at rest will run backwards and that prediction violates the logical…
Section 7 of Einstein's 1905 electrodynamics paper gives frequency-shift and aberration formulae that together describe an elongated ellipsoidal wavefront. A Lorentz contraction of this ellipsoid solves most (but not all) of the associated…
A rigorous quantum relativistic approach has been used to calculate the relationship between the decay laws of an unstable particle seen from two inertial frames moving with respect to each other. In agreement with experiment, it is found…
The conventional discussion of the observed distortions of space and time in Special Relativity (the Lorentz-Fitzgerald Contraction and Time Dilatation) is extended by considering observations, from a stationary frame, of : (i) objects…
A succinct chronology is given around Nov 1915, when the explicit field equations of General Relativity have been found. Evidence, unearthed by D.Wuensch, that a decisive document of Hilbert has been mutilated in recent years with the…