Challenging the Unchallengeable: Einstein’S Theory of Special Relativity

Copyright © 2018 John D. Frey.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-5618-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-5619-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017919427

Archway Publishing rev. date: 1/30/2018

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter One

Special Relativity’s Two Principles

Chapter 2

Preludes to Special Relativity’s Length Contraction And Time Dilation

Chapter 3

Special Relativity’s Time Dilation and Length Contraction

Chapter 4

Evidence Refuting the Claims of Special Relativity From Clock Synchronization Approaches

Chapter 5

Evidence Refuting the Claims of Special Relativity From a Vertical and Diagonal Pulse of Light

Chapter 6

Evidence Refuting the Claims of Special Relativity From the Darkness and Light in a Spaceship

Chapter 7

Evidence Refuting the Claims of Special Relativity From Special Relativity’s Length Contraction

Chapter 8

Evidence Refuting the Claims of Special Relativity from a Pulse Fired on a Diagonal Pathway

Chapter 9

No Verification of Special Relativity By the Hafele-Keating Experiment

Chapter 10

No Verification of Special Relativity By the Frisch and Smith Muon Experiment

Chapter 11

No Verification of Special Relativity By the Global Positioning System

Chapter 12

No Verification of Special Relativity By the Michelson-Morley Experiment

Chapter 13

No Verification of Special Relativity’s Two Principles By the Verifications of E=mc² and E=mc²/√(1-v²/c²)

Chapter 14

The Invalid Claim of Special Relativity

Closing Comment By The Author

Acknowledgments By The Author

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

When it comes to the principles and logic upon which special relativity is built, the scientific community seems to accept their validity as either certain or as certain as the foundational concepts of any theory can be. There are various reasons for the firm acceptance of these principles and logic, and among them is the fact that they have existed and been accepted by the scientific community for more than 100 years. A second reason is that various experiments have tested the principles, logic, and results of special relativity and have been used in their support. A third reason centers on the brilliance of the person who created special relativity, Albert Einstein. Hence, we find an almost universal conviction in the world of science that the core concepts upon which special relativity is built are beyond serious challenge. Since the purpose of this book is to test and challenge these core concepts, the title of the book speaks about challenging the unchallengeable.

As the author of this book, I will describe myself as a nonprofessional lover of science who has spent more than ten years as an ardent researcher into every aspect of special relativity. This research not only involved an enormous amount of reading and reflecting about special relativity, but it especially involved an ongoing dialogue with a number of awesome professors of physics who were willing to share their time and expertise with me. Over the years I was able to place before them whatever concepts, questions, or experimental procedures that I was considering, and they gave me their reactions. This, in turn, led to hundreds of email exchanges and, at times, to some very intense dialogue. On some occasions their responses helped me to see the error of my ways. On other occasions their responses helped in firming up my own divergent viewpoints. But behind my conclusions about special relativity, there was input from some caring and learned professors, and I shall forever be grateful to them for their willingness to share their knowledge and time with me. However, I am not posting their names, because some might not want to be listed in a book that seeks to challenge the core concepts of special relativity.

In sending this book out into the world, I am making no claims about it being the last word on the subject of special relativity. I do think, however, that it presents innovative concepts and step by step logic that are worthy of consideration. It is my hope that by being written in everyday, nontechnical language, this book will allow people from many walks of life to participate in a vital discussion about the makeup of the universe in which we live.

Overview of Special Relativity

In June 1905, Albert Einstein submitted an article to the German publication Annalen der Physik entitled On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. Within its pages, he presented two principles and a logical application of these principles that led to two unique conclusions when systems are in uniform motion with respect to each other - the dilation or slowing of time and the contraction of a system’s length. In September of that same year, Einstein submitted a short, three-page article to Annalen der Physik, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content? which concerned the equivalence of energy and mass. It contained, in essence, the most famous equation in the world, E=mc², as well as a related equation E=mc²/√(1-v²/c²). Eventually, the contents of these two articles and their dramatic conclusions came to be known as the special theory of relativity.

Einstein reiterated the contents of the two articles and offered further explanations of them in a number of other published works, such as On the Relativity Principle and the Conclusions Drawn from It, a document of 1907; The Theory of Relativity, a 1911 lecture given in Zurich; Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, a book offered in 1916; and The Meaning of Relativity, a book published by Princeton University containing four lectures presented by Einstein at Princeton in 1921.

As to the contents of this book, chapter one presents the two principles upon which the time dilation and length contraction of special relativity are built. The second chapter offers concepts that were created before special relativity and were preludes to the time dilation and length contraction of special relativity. Chapter 3 gives an overview concerning the way in which the claims of special relativity bring about time dilation and length contraction through the functioning of its two principles.

Chapters 4 through 8 present various experiments and concepts that test the validity of special relativity’s claims and reveal how and why these claims fail this testing. In chapters 9 through 13, it is shown why prominent experiments and events that are used to support the claims of special relativity fail to accomplish this purpose. Chapter 14 considers the claim of special relativity that is most likely to have caused special relativity to fail its testing in chapters 4 through 8.

Thought Experiments and Amazing Human Abilities

In explaining special relativity, Einstein frequently used imaginary experiments that are conducted with concepts and words rather than with concrete objects and actions. This practice is understandable since in today’s world there are often no physical experiments that can reveal what takes place in accord with the claims of special relativity. It is possible, for instance, to imagine spaceships traveling near the speed of light and make logical deductions from such events even though there are no man-made vessels that can come anywhere near such speeds. In this paper we will follow Einstein’s example by using verbal experiments as he used them.

English System of Measurements

The English system of measurements will be used throughout the book. The reason comes from the very convenient fact that the constant speed of light is approximately one-foot-per-nanosecond. This will be the speed that is used for light in all the experiments that are presented in this book. The actual speed of light is .983571-foot-per-nanosecond.

CHAPTER ONE

Special Relativity’s Two Principles

As shown in chapter 2 of Einstein’s On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, the time dilation and length contraction of special relativity are built on two principles - the relativity principle and the constant speed of light principle. In this chapter, we present an overview of both principles.

The Relativity Principle

The relativity principle of special relativity has two basic aspects. Concerning the first aspect, the principle insists that when there is uniform motion between two systems, A and B, it is completely the motion of A with respect to B and completely the motion of B with respect to A. In chapter 18 of Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, Einstein describes this facet of the relativity principle with these words:

The basal principle, which was the pivot of all our previous considerations, was the special principle of relativity, i.e. the principle of the physical relativity of all uniform motion. Let us once more analyze its meaning carefully. It was at all times clear that, from the point of view of the idea it conveys to us, every motion must be considered only as a relative motion. Returning to the illustration we have frequently used of the embankment and the railway carriage, we can express the fact of the motion here taking place in the following two forms, both of which are equally justifiable: (a) The carriage is in motion relative to the embankment.(b) The embankment is in motion relative to the carriage.

Hence, as shown by this statement, the relativity principle of special relativity deals with the uniform motion between systems such as between a train and its embankment. The principle insists that this uniform motion is the motion of the train relative to the embankment and observers on the embankment and the motion of the embankment relative to the train and observers in the train.

In the first paragraph of his 1911 paper, The Theory of Relativity, Einstein presents a second aspect of the relativity principle with the following account:

Picture to yourself two physicists. Let both physicists be equipped with every physical instrument imaginable; let each of them have a laboratory. Suppose that the laboratory of one of the physicists is arranged somewhere in an open field, and that of the second in a railroad car traveling at constant velocity in a given direction. The principle of relativity states the following: if, using all their equipment, these two physicists were to study all the laws of nature, one in his stationary laboratory and the other in his laboratory on the train, they would discover exactly the same laws of nature, provided that the train is not shaking and is traveling in uniform motion. Somewhat more abstractly, we can say: according to the principle of relativity, the laws of nature are independent of the translational motion of the reference system.

Hence, according to Einstein’s relativity principle, if there is uniform motion between system A and system B after the two systems had been at rest with each other, this motion can cause no changes in the way an event happens in A from the way the event happened in A before this motion with respect to the occupants of A, and it can cause no changes in the way