RELATIVITY AND THE NATURE OF SPACETIME

By AMELIA GARCIA

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PART I FROM GALILEO TO MINKOWSKI ON THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF DETECTING UNIFORM MOTION ARISTOTLE’S VIEW ON MOTION COPERNICUS AND PTOLEMY’S ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE EARTH’S MOTION GALILEO’S DISPROOF OF ARISTOTLE’S VIEW ON MOTION GALILEO’S PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY EXPLORING THE INTERNAL LOGIC OF GALILEO’S PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY ON THE PHYSICAL MEANING OF GALILEO’S PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY ON THE TWO POSTULATES OF SPECIAL RELATIVITY A LESSON FROM A DELAYED DISCOVERY SUMMARY RELATIVITY IN EUCLIDEAN SPACE AND IN SPACETIME SPACETIME DERIVATION OF THE LORENTZ TRANSFORMATIONS FOUR-DIMENSIONAL DISTANCE AND THREE KINDS OF LENGTH Y ‘DILATION’ IN EUCLIDEAN SPACE AND TIME DILATION IN SPACETIME LENGTH CONTRACTION IN EUCLIDEAN SPACE AND IN SPACETIME THE TWIN PARADOX IN EUCLIDEAN SPACE AND IN SPACETIME ADDITION OF VELOCITIES THE METRIC OF SPACETIME ON PROPER AND COORDINATE TIME FOUR-VELOCITY, FOUR-MOMENTUM, AND RELATIVISTIC MASS PART II ON THE NATURE OF SPACETIME: CONCEPTUAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES RELATIVITY AND THE DIMENSIONALITY OF THE WORLD: SPACETIME IS REAL HAS SPECIAL RELATIVITY POSED THE GREATEST INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE TO HUMANKIND? RELATIVITY AND DIMENSIONALITY OF THE WORLD LENGTH CONTRACTION TIME DILATION RELATIVIZATION OF EXISTENCE AND THE TWIN PARADOX WHY IS THE ISSUE OF THE NATURE OF SPACETIME SO IMPORTANT? CONVENTIONALITY OF SIMULTANEITY TEMPORAL BECOMING FLOW OF TIME AND CONSCIOUSNESS FREE WILL QUANTUM MECHANICS AND THE NATURE OF SPACETIME QUANTUM MECHANICAL ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE REALITY OF SPACETIME IS QUANTUM MECHANICAL PROBABILITY OBJECTIVE? THE NATURE OF THE QUANTUM OBJECT AND THE NATURE OF SPACETIME THE NATURE OF SPACETIME AND VALIDITY OF SCIENTI?C THEORIES RELIABILITY OF KNOWLEDGE: INDUCTION AS HIDDEN DEDUCTION CORRESPONDENCE PRINCIPLE AND GROWTH OF SCIENTI?C KNOWLEDGE CAN AN ACCEPTED SCIENTI?C THEORY BE REFUTED? IS A FINAL SCIENTI?C THEORY POSSIBLE? PART III SPACETIME, NON-INERTIAL REFERENCE FRAMES, AND INERTIA PROPAGATION OF LIGHT IN NON-INERTIAL REFERENCE FRAMES ACCELERATION IS ABSOLUTE IN SPECIAL AND GENERAL RELATIVITY THE NEED FOR TWO AVERAGE VELOCITIES OF LIGHT IN NON-INERTIAL REFERENCE FRAMES AVERAGE COORDINATE VELOCITY OF LIGHT AVERAGE PROPER VELOCITY OF LIGHT SHAPIRO TIME DELAY ON THE GRAVITATIONAL REDSHIFT THE SAGNAC E?ECT CALCULATING THE ELECTRIC FIELD OF A CHARGE IN A NON-INERTIAL REFERENCE FRAME CALCULATING THE POTENTIAL OF A CHARGE IN A NON-INERTIAL REFERENCE FRAME COMMON PHYSICAL ORIGIN OF THE LI´ENARD–WIECHERT POTENTIALS AND THE POTENTIALS OF A CHARGE IN A NON-INERTIAL REFERENCE FRAME 10 INERTIA AS A MANIFESTATION OF THE REALITY OF SPACETIME ARE INERTIAL FORCES REAL? INERTIAL FORCES ORIGINATE FROM A FOUR-DIMENSIONAL STRESS ARISING IN THE DEFORMED WORLDTUBES OF NON-INERTIAL BODIES ELECTROMAGNETIC MASS AND INERTIA OF THE CLASSICAL ELECTRON THE STANDARD MODEL AND INERTIA