Vinaire's Blog

References:

Relativity – The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein

Appendix V (added later to this book by Albert Einstein)

Einstein says in Appendix V: “Since the special theory of relativity revealed the physical equivalence of all inertial systems, it proved the untenability of the hypothesis of an aether at rest. It was therefore necessary to renounce the idea that the electromagnetic field is to be regarded as a state of a material carrier. The field thus becomes an irreducible element of physical description, irreducible in the same sense as the concept of matter in the theory of Newton.”

Einstein refers to field as “an irreducible element of physical description.” Field, therefore, is a substance, which is more basic than matter. The defining characteristic of field is frequency, where the defining characteristic of matter is mass.

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Einstein says in Section V: “Even though classical mechanics does not supply us with a sufficiently broad basis for the theoretical presentation of all physical phenomena, still we must grant it a considerable measure of “truth,” since it supplies us with the actual motions of the heavenly bodies with a delicacy of detail little short of wonderful. The principle of relativity must therefore apply with great accuracy in the domain of mechanics. But that a principle of such broad generality should hold with such exactness in one domain of phenomena, and yet should be invalid for another, is a priori not very probable.”

Einstein is justifying his assumption that the principle of relativity, which is valid for uniform translation of mass, also applies to electrodynamic and optical phenomena that does not deal with mass. This is a big assumption that should be watched carefully.

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Einstein says in Section VII, “There is hardly a simpler law in physics than that according to which light is propagated in empty space. Every child at school knows, or believes he knows, that this propagation takes place in straight lines with a velocity c = 300,000 km./sec. At all events we know with great exactness that this velocity is the same for all colours, because if this were not the case, the minimum of emission would not be observed simultaneously for different colours during the eclipse of a fixed star by its dark neighbour. By means of similar considerations based on observations of double stars, the Dutch astronomer De Sitter was also able to show that the velocity of propagation of light cannot depend on the velocity of motion of the body emitting the light. The assumption that this velocity of propagation is dependent on the direction ‘in space’ is in itself improbable.”

The observation by Dutch astronomer De Sitter gives us a clue that motion in field does not necessarily follow the laws of motion in the rigid coördinate system applied to matter. Therefore, we cannot use a coördinate system designed for matter as a coördinate system for motion in field. Field seems to have its own “coördinate system” that is different from the “coördinate system” for matter.

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Einstein says in Section VII, “The velocity of propagation of a ray of light relative to the carriage thus comes out smaller than c. But this result comes into conflict with the principle of relativity set forth in Section V. For, like every other general law of nature, the law of the transmission of light in vacuo must, according to the principle of relativity, be the same for the railway carriage as reference-body as when the rails are the body of reference.”

Undoubtedly, the principle of relativity applies to the “coördinate system” for matter. We are used to looking at uniform translation with respect to matter. Relative velocities are additive from the viewpoint of matter whose position can be pinpointed by a center of mass.

But light is a disturbance traveling within a field that cannot be pinpointed by a center of mass. It is a frequency spread throughout the field. Comparing speed of a mass particle, to the speed of disturbance in a field, is like comparing apples to oranges. A correct comparison for speed of matter would be to the speed of the field itself.

According to Bohr’s principle of correspondence, the discrete frequency, as it increases, becomes, as a limit, the continuous mass of classical mechanics. The coördinate system for matter is too limited to include the phenomenon of light. For the principle of relativity, we need a coördinate system that would be applicable to both matter and field. Such a coördinate system shall be based on frequency and not mass.

We need to review Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in a coördinate system based on frequency and not on mass.

Einstein’s theory of relativity is looking at space and time through the filter of mass.

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