Re: The theoretical problem of action at a distance

On Oct 28, 3:40 pm, "Androcles" <Engin...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"RP" <no_mail_no_s...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:1193602673.809766.108650@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
:
: Reference:
:
:http://physics.nmt.edu/~raymond/classes/ph13xbook/node143.html
:
:
: "[...]Just what does it mean to say that the total energy and momentum
: remain constant with time in the context of relativity? Which time?
: The time in which reference frame?"

There is only one time for all of them. The question is moot.

Actually it is moot, but not for that reason. The problem still exists
in a Galilean context as well, so special relativity has no special
claim to it.

Your solution is a ballistic model, but there is no accounting for an
interaction between those bullets and the electrons. When bullets
collide with an object, the forces generated on the two are due to
electromagnetic interactions between their constituent charges,
involving action at a distance between the electrons. If you model
photons as bullets, then the very intent of the carriers is lost in
translation. You have closed in the distance, but you haven't
eliminated it.

The same reduction in displacement between cause and the effect can be
obtained through the lorentz transform by assuming a frame of
reference moving at c wrt the charges, and along the line joining
them. Wrt that frame the space-like displacment between the charges is
zero. With no space between them, who needs an intermediary?

With long wavelengths, say for instance a 10 meter ham radio
transmission, by suitable choice of reference frame the far field can
be converted into the near field. With a transmitting antenna and a
recieving antenna located 1000 meters distant from each other, in
thier frame at any instant there are 100 wavelengths suspended in the
space between them. Not so for an observer moving at .99 c wrt them
along the line that joins them. Wrt that frame only a fraction of one
wavelength exists in space when the signal is directed away from the
observer and the source toward him. The signal will be red shifted
significantly, whereas lorentz contraction reduces the separation
between the two antennas. If photons are capable of accounting for
the absorbtion of wave energy even before a single oscillation at the
source is complete, then photons will have to take on characteristics
that provide them with the ability to exactly replicate a classical
field.
And they do, the two approaches are entirely equivalent. That's why
photons are such spooky creatures. Take everything about them with a
large grain of salt.






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