Lorentz transformation looks at the characteristics of space and time from the viewpoint of the invariant speed of light. The invariance of the speed of light means that it is absolute. It does not depend on anything external to light. It is an intrinsic property.
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Light as Substance
If light has intrinsic properties, then light may be considered a substance. Newton thought so because he looked at light as made up of corpuscles. Unlike an atom a corpuscle is infinitely divisible. See Corpuscular theory of light – Wikipedia. An “electromagnetic cycle” may be considered a corpuscle. It is infinitely divisible because time can be considered to be infinitely divisible.
The higher is the frequency of light, the greater is the concentration of “electromagnetic cycles”, or corpuscles. These corpuscles cannot be treated as point particles because they do not have center of mass like material particles do. They have to treated as a fluid-like continuum. Therefore, higher concentration of corpuscles would mean, higher density of the fluid-like continuum of light.
We may conclude that light is a continuum with certain density. Its density is represented by a “frequency”. This density indicates that light has mass, but this mass is not structured as it is in matter. This mass displays wave characteristics as it flows at the speed of light.
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Space and Time
Space may be considered to be a characteristic of substance. Descartes thought that space is defined by the extents of substance. This is obvious for matter. But the space, which is empty of matter, may actually be defined by the extents of light. Here light refers to the whole electromagnetic spectrum.
Similarly, time may be defined by the duration of substance. Matter seems to have almost infinite duration because it endures forever at any location in space. But the duration of light seems to be very small, because it whizzes past any location in space at great speed. The duration of a substance and its absolute speed appear to be inverse of each other. See The Logic of Motion.
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Speed in Lorentz Equation
The above considerations present motion in absolute terms. They are very likely to provide interesting interpretation to Lorentz transformations and also to Einstein’s theory of special relativity.
The relative motion that we measure as the speed of heavenly bodies and the speed of objects on earth, is not the same thing as the absolute motion that we measure as inverse of density. Therefore, we cannot compare a relative speed to the absolute motion of light because they do not have the same basis. They are like apples and oranges. The “v/c” ratio in Lorentz transform have no consistent basis mathematically.
The implications of this shall be taken up in the next chapter.
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