Re: A Derivation of Special Relativity without Invoking Group Theory

From: Eugene Shubert (GalileoProject002_at_everythingimportant.org)
Date: 01/25/05 

Date: 24 Jan 2005 17:32:08 -0800

> Nobody ever said anything about spacetime, itself, having a group
> structure.

Is spacetime a geometry?
Does geometry have a group structure?
Do groups have a group structure?

Consider what the following nobodies have said:

"The geometry of Minkowski space is defined by the Poincaré group."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincar%E9_group

"Every geometry is defined by a group of transformations, and the goal
of every geometry is to study invariants of this group." Klein,
Erlanger Program.

"Each type of geometry is the study of the invariants of a group of
transformations; that is, the symmetry transformation of some chosen
space." Stewart and Golubitsky 1993, p. 44.

"A geometry is defined by a group of transformations, and investigates
everything that is invariant under the transformations of this given
group." Weyl 1952, p. 133.
http://www.everythingimportant.org/relativity/special.pdf

Quantcast