Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T17:00:11.404Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Relativista Mechanics and Electrodynamics Without One-Way Velocity Assumptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Carlo Giannoni
Carlo Giannoni*
Affiliation:
Rice University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Conventionality of Simultaneity espoused by Reichenbach, Grünbaum, Edwards, and Winnie is herein extended to mechanics and electrodynamics. The extension is seen to be a special case of a generally covariant formulation of physics, and therefore consistent with Special Relativity as the geometry of flat space-time. Many of the quantities of classical physics, such as mass, charge density, and force, are found to be synchronization dependent in this formulation and, therefore, in Reichenbach's terminology, “metrogenic.” The relationship of these quantities to 4-vectors and their physical significance is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 1978 , pp. 17 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I should like to thank the referee for his probing criticism of the original Sections 1,2, and 5. In order to respond to his criticisms I had to sharpen my position considerably, and the result is, I believe, a much more clearly defined stand on the issues involved.

References

[1] Anderson, J. L. Principles of Relativity Physics. New York and London: Academic Press, 1967.10.1063/1.3034080CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Beauregard, L. A. “The Sui Generis Conventionality of Simultaneity.” Philosophy of Science 43 (1976): 469–490.10.1086/288706CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[3] Edwards, W. F. “Special Relativity in Anisotropic Space.” American Journal of Physics 31 (1963): 482–489.10.1119/1.1969607CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] Ellis, B., and Bowman, P. “Conventionality in Distant Simultaneity,” Philosophy of Science 34 (1967): 116–136.10.1086/288136CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Feynman, R., Leighton, R., and Sands, M. The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, Vol. II, 1963.Google Scholar
[6] Grünbaum, A. Philosophical Problems of Space and Time. 2nd enlarged edition. Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel, 1973.10.1007/978-94-010-2622-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[7] Grünbaum, A. et al. “A Panel Discussion of Simultaneity by Slow Clock Transport in the Special and General Theories of Relativity.” Philosophy of Science 36 (1969): 1–81.10.1086/288233CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] Marinov, S. “The Velocity of Light is Direction Dependent.” Czechoslovakian Journal of Physics B24 (1974): 965–970.10.1007/BF01591047CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[9] Minkowski, H. “Space and Time.” In A. Einstein, et al., The Principle of Relativity. New York: Dover, 1923.Google Scholar
[10] Putnam, H. “An Examination of Grünbaum's Philosophy of Geometry.” Philosophy of Science: The Delaware Seminar, Vol. 2. New York: Interscience Publishers, 1963.Google Scholar
[11] Reichenbach, H. The Philosophy of Space and Time. New York: Dover, 1958.Google Scholar
[12] Rindler, W. Essential Relativity. New York: Van Nostrand, 1969.10.1007/978-1-4757-1135-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13] Sklar, L. Space, Time, and Spacetime. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 174.10.1525/9780520340701CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[14] Tolman, R. C. Relativity, Thermodynamics and Cosmology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934.Google Scholar
[15] Winnie, J. A. “Special Relativity Without One-Way Velocity Assumptions.” Philosophy of Science 37 (1970): 81–99 and 223–238.10.1086/288281CrossRefGoogle Scholar