Re: Eric Gisse doesn't know the basics of Relativity

Eric Gisse wrote:
On Aug 5, 9:16 am, "T.M. Sommers" <t...@xxxxxx> wrote:
gu...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 5, 11:12 am, "T.M. Sommers" <t...@xxxxxx> wrote:

Temperature is not invariant. It transforms as

T' = T * (1 - v^2/c^2)^(1/2)

Come on. Rest Mass is a Lorentz invariant scalar.

Never heard of invariant mass, M' = gamma M.

M remains invariant.

I thought we were talking about temperature. What has mass got
to do with it?

Nothing. He seems to believe that the kludge known as "relativistic
mass" somehow invalidates my argument.

This has been going on since April. He didn't understand then, and
doesn't understand now as evidenced by his latest little temper
tantrum. Every so often he has to spam this newsgroup with about 20
posts saying how stupid I am and whatever.

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.physics.relativity/msg/8ec41d88e7511d62?dmode=source

That is the argument for why temperature transforms as such.

I'm not so sure, anymore. Based on a quick search of arXiv, this seems to be an unsettled area of physics, with some saying

T' = T * (1 - v^2/c^2)^(1/2),

some saying

T' = T / (1 - v^2/c^2)^(1/2),

and some saying

T' = T.

See arXiv:gr-qc/9505045, arXiv:physics/0506214, and arXiv:physics/9610016, for instance.

That something so seemingly basic is still unsettled after 100 years suggests to me that there is something wrong with the question. I suspect, but cannot prove, that T does not transform at all (which is different from saying T' = T). I further suspect that this is because a system in equilibrium in one frame is not in equilibrium in another.

Consider an ideal gas in a box at equilibrium in its rest frame. The molecules will have the usual speed distribution, which, if I recall correctly, is symmetric with respect to direction. However, the speed distribution will not be symmetric as seen in a frame in which the box is moving, because the velocity addition equation introduces a bias. So the gas will not be seen to be equilibrium in the other frame, and it won't have a temperature.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned in another post, my thermal physics is so rusty that it will take more than a few cans of WS-40 to get it working again, so I may be completely wrong.

--
Thomas M. Sommers -- tms@xxxxxx -- AB2SB

.

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