Top Document: (SR) Lorentz t', x' = Intervals Previous Document: 3. The Lorentz-Einstein transforms Next Document: 5. Single-system, little-purpose ambiguity. See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge The 'just coordinates' argument is so patently ridiculous that even opponents have a hard time accepting just how simple and obvious its debunking can be, as shown in this section. However, further sections take a more arithmet- ical approach that you'll maybe find more professorial. The 'just coordinates' argument is that t is mot a duration, not a time interval; it's just an arbitrary clock reading. But what if the moving system observer comes speeding by while you make your annual 'spring forward' or 'fall back' change? The formula says that the moving system clock's 'just coordinate' reading can be calculated from yours: t' = (t - vx/cc)/sqrt(1-vv/cc) (Eq 1t) Imagine the moving system oberver's confusion if his clock changes its reading while he's looking at it! If his clock doesn't change when yours does, the formula is wrong; if it is truly a 'just coordinates' formula. And then what happens if you realize you were a day early and put your clock back to what it had said previously? And suppose you are in NYC and your twin in LA and both are watching the moving observer. You'll both be using the same v because you are at rest wrt (with respect to) each other. You're on Eastern Standard Time and your twin is on Pacific Standard Time maybe. You have three hours more on your clock than does your twin. On which 'just coordinate' clock will the Lorentz transforms base the 'just coordinate' time the moving system clock says? The formula applies to both of your t-times: t' = (t - vx/cc)/sqrt(1-vv/cc) (Eq 1t) Sure, the idea that you can change someone else's clock with no connection of any kind is really ridiculous, but Eqs 1x and 1t aren't MY equations. Are they yours? And we aren't the ones to say x, t, x', and t' are just coordinates. If the t' formula is actually either an elapsed time formula, or the basis of a t'/t ratio, then there is no implication that one clock's reading has anything to do with the other's. It can only be rates of clock ticking, or how one time INTERVAL compares to the other that the formula is about. User Contributions:Top Document: (SR) Lorentz t', x' = Intervals Previous Document: 3. The Lorentz-Einstein transforms Next Document: 5. Single-system, little-purpose ambiguity. Single Page [ Usenet FAQs | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Send corrections/additions to the FAQ Maintainer: Thnktank@concentric.net (Eleaticus)
Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:12 PM
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