Related papers: In Praise of Slowness
The unification of relativity and thermodynamics has been a subject of considerable debate over the last 100 years. The reasons for this are twofold: (i) Thermodynamic variables are nonlocal quantities and, thus, single out a preferred…
A new object, called the velocity tensor, is introduced. It allows to formulate a generally covariant mechanics. Some properties of the velocity tensor are derived.
Consider the scenario, in which human civilization undergoes periodic eras of progression and regression, and consequently, changes in cosmological knowledge are cyclic. There exist solutions of general theory of relativity, such as the…
Contrary to claims about the irrelevance of philosophy for science, I argue that philosophy has had, and still has, far more influence on physics than is commonly assumed. I maintain that the current anti-philosophical ideology has had…
In the past century it was believed that both the main theories (quantum mechanics and special relativity) predicted the existence of physical processes that could not be explained in the framework of classical physics. However, it has been…
Inverse optimization describes a process that is the "reverse" of traditional mathematical optimization. Unlike traditional optimization, which seeks to compute optimal decisions given an objective and constraints, inverse optimization…
In this paper I argue that the fundamental aspect of our notion of time is that it defines an order relation, be it a total order relation between configurations of the world or just a partial order relation between events. This position is…
A system's apparent simplicity depends on whether it is represented classically or quantally. This is not so surprising, as classical and quantum physics are descriptive frameworks built on different assumptions that capture, emphasize, and…
The locality hypothesis is generally considered necessary for the study of the kinematics of non-inertial systems in special relativity. In this paper we discuss this hypothesis, showing the necessity of an improvement, in order to get a…
We consider motion in a periodic potential in a classical, quantum, and semiclassical context. Various results on the distribution of asymptotic velocities are proven.
Admitting the validity of Lorentz transformations for the space as time coordinates of the same event we derive their differential form in order to underline the correct prerequisites for the application of time and length contraction or…
In this note, we discuss the significance of the general principle of relativity for a physical theory that abandons the newtonian concept of force and, hence, uses an entirely different conception for the ``cause'' behind motions of…
We reconsider velocity addition/subtraction in Special Relativity and re-derive its well-known non-commutative and non-associative algebraic properties in a self contained way, including various explicit expressions for the Thomas angle,…
This work deals with the questions of absolute space and relativity. In particular, an alternative derivation of the effects described by special relativity is provided, which is based on a description that assumes a privileged reference…
In this paper, we introduce a new concept of rapidity and define formulae for energy and momentum as functions of the new rapidity, we denominate "counter-rapidity". The correspoding velocity is measured from the state of light speed in…
A general formal definition of a theory of space and time compatible with the inertia principle is given. The formal definition of reference frame and inertial equivalence between reference frames are used to construct the class of inertial…
This paper presents some ideas which might assist teachers incorporating special relativity into an introductory physics curriculum. One can define the proper-time/velocity pair, as well as the coordinate-time/velocity pair, of a traveler…
New status in quantum mechanics is connected with recent achievements in the inverse problem. With its help instead of about ten exactly solvable models which serve as a basis of the contemporary education there are infinite (!) number,…
It is proved that local Lorentz transformations for different systems cannot derive varying speed of light. Based on the special relativity principle, an invariant speed is necessarily obtained. Therefore, the exact basic principles of the…
According to the theory of ether light propagates with constant speed c with respect to the absolute reference frame and with respect to any other reference frame the speed of light is covariant. According to the theory of special…