Related papers: Voigt transformations in retrospect: missed opport…
During the last five decades, gravity, as one of the fundamental forces of nature, has been formulated as a gauge theory of the Weyl-Cartan-Yang-Mills type. The present text offers commentaries on the articles from the most prominent…
We compare the results obtained by interpreting some fundamental relativistic experiments from the point of view of two alternative theories: Einstein's special relativity theory and the Lorentz-Poincare theory admitting the existence of a…
Both Poincar\'e in his 1900 Festschrift paper \cite{Poincare} and Einstein in his 1905 \textsl{Annalen der Physik} article \cite{Einstein} were led to $E=mc^2$ by considering electromagnetic processes taking place in vacuo. Poincar\'e's…
In 1887 Voigt published a paper dedicated to the Doppler effect in which he demanded form invariance to the wave equation in inertial frames and obtained a set of spacetime transformations now known as the Voigt transformations. In 1905…
Many professional physicists do not fully understand the implications of the Einstein equivalence principle of general relativity. Consequently, many are unaware of the fact that special relativity is fully capable of handling accelerated…
Einstein's special theory of relativity starts with assumptions about how observations conducted in relatively moving inertial frames must compare. From these assumptions, conclusions can be drawn regarding the laws of physics in any one…
The present discussion concerning certain fundamental physical theories (such as string theory and multiverse cosmology) has reopened the demarcation problem between science and non-science. While parts of the physics community see the…
We deduce from Poincare's ellipsoidal wavefronts a relativistic Doppler-Fizeau formula that is not the same as 1905 Einstein's one. Longitudinally, Einstein's formula and Poincare's formula are the same. The question of an experimental test…
The relation between quantum theory and special relativity is peculiar. On the one hand it is close and essential. Steven Weinberg [1], for example, takes the position that the standard model is an inevitable consequence of the marriage of…
The rich body of physical theories defines the foundation of our understanding of the world. Its mathematical formulation is based on classical Aristotelian (binary) logic. In the philosophy of science the ambiguities, paradoxes, and the…
This work analyzes the difficulties in learning and teaching Einstein's theory of special relativity. An extensive bibliographic review has been performed, considering articles published in the most relevant journals on science education,…
Einstein's reply to Weyl about the importance in General Relativity of the identity of the sources of spectral lines is well know. We show that, already in Special Relavitity, Einstein's definition of the unit of time from the frequency of…
This paper is devoted to Poincar\'e's work in probability. Though the subject does not represent a large part of the mathematician's achievements, it provides significant insight into the evolution of Poincar\'e's thought on several…
It is demonstrated that energy conservation allows for a straight derivation of Newtonian mechanics without an apriori definition of the concept of work. Furthermore it is shown that energy must be depicted as a function of position and…
Eugene Wigner famously argued for the "unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" for describing physics and other natural sciences in his 1960 essay. That essay has now led to some 55 years of (sometimes anguished) soul searching ---…
Einstein distinguished between ``principle'' and ``constructive'' theories in physics, and although he thought the latter were more explanatory than the former, he regarded his 1905 formulation of special relativity theory as a principle…
Before 1905, Poincar\'e stressed the importance of the method of clocks and their synchronization, but unlike Einstein, magnet and conductor (asymmetries in Lorentz's theory regarding the explanation of Faraday's induction) or chasing a…
The primary aim, in teaching physics, is that the student should gain an understanding of the principles of physics and how to apply them to different problems. A secondary aim is to allow the students to appreciate the scientific approach…
In this pedagogical article, we explore a powerful language for describing the notion of spacetime and particle dynamics intrinsic to a given fundamental physical theory, focusing on special relativity and its Newtonian limit. The starting…
We demonstrate that Einstein's general relativity theory arises as a special case in the framework of the Poincar\'e gauge theory of gravity under the assumption of a suitable nonminimal coupling of matter to the Riemann-Cartan geometry of…