Related papers: Herbert Dingle and "Science at the Crossroads"
In his interviews with Eckermann in the 1820s, Goethe referred to his Theory of Colors as his greatest and ultimate achievement. Its reception following publication in 1810 and subsequent reviews throughout the history of physical science…
Albert Einstein postulated the equivalence of energy and mass, developed the theory of special relativity, explained the photoelectric effect, and described Brownian motion in five papers, all published in 1905, 100 years ago. With these…
The theory of special relativity derives from the Lorentz transformation. The Lorentz transformation implies differential simultaneity and light speed isotropy. Experiments to probe differential simultaneity should be able to distinguish…
We provide some guidance and examples to clear up common misconceptions about special relativity. These misconceptions often come from trying to express the truths of special relativity in Newtonian terms rather than in terms more natural…
We give a brief critical examination of the special theory of relativity and a similar Newtonian framework to the first order of the $v/c$ ratio, focusing on the phenomena of aberration, Fresnel dragging, and the Doppler effect. We will…
We show that the transformations J. M. Hill and B. J. Cox introduce between inertial observers moving faster than light with respect to each other are consistent with Einstein's principle of relativity only if the spacetime is 2…
In these notes we give an introductory unified treatment to the topics of special relativity, Lorentz transformations and the Lorentz group, Einstein velocitiy addition, and gyrogroups and gyrovector spaces. An effort has been made to…
In an earlier paper the author expounded an interferometer scheme to communicate classical data over an entangled quantum channel. We return to this concept to show that the laws of Quantum Mechanics are not violated and that the device is…
Lorentz Invariance violation is a common feature of new physics beyond the standard model. We show that the symmetry of Randers spaces deduces a modified dispersion relation with characteristics of Lorentz Invariance violation. The…
Probably the most dramatic historical challenge to scientific realism concerns Arnold Sommerfeld's 1916 derivation of the fine structure energy levels of hydrogen. Not only were his predictions good, he derived exactly the same formula that…
Einstein was deeply puzzled by the success of natural science, and thought that we would never be able to explain it. He came to this conclusion on the ground that we cannot extract the basic laws of physics from experience using induction…
I provide a critical commentary regarding the attitude of the logician and the philosopher towards the physicist and physics. The commentary is intended to showcase how a general change in attitude towards making scientific inquiries can be…
We highlight four points which have been ignored or underestimated before and which allow a better understanding of "Sur la dynamique de l'electron": (i) the use by Poincare of active Lorentz transformations (boosts); (ii) the necessity,…
An apparent paradox in Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, known as a Thomas precession rotation in atomic physics, has been verified experimentally in a number of ways. However, somewhat surprisingly, it has not yet been demonstrated…
The Special Theory of Relativity and the Theory of the Electron have had an interesting history together. Originally the electron was studied in a non relativistic context and this opened up the interesting possibility that lead to the…
Einstein identified singularities in spacetimes, such as at the Schwarzschild radius, where later relativists only find a coordinate system assigning multiple values to a single spacetime event. These differing judgments derive from…
Some attack scientific rationality, others defend it, but both miss the point. What both parties take to be scientific rationality is actually a species of irrationality masquerading as scientific rationality. The current orthodox…
Various paradoxes about the relativity theory have been developed since the birth of this theory. Each paradox somewhat shows people's query about the relativity theory, and solving of each paradox demonstrates the correctness of relativity…
The place of an anthropic argument in the discrimination between various cosmological models is to be reconsidered following the classic criticisms of Paul C. W. Davies and Frank J. Tipler. Different versions of the anthropic argument…
We first see that the inertia of Newtonian mechanics is absolute and troublesome. General relativity can be viewed as Einstein's attempt to remedy, by making inertia relative, to matter---perhaps imperfectly though, as at least a couple of…