Re: Where physics went wrong

Martin Hogbin wrote:
In that case I think I would prefer to explicitly postulate that we live
in Minkowski spacetime,

Why not 'never never land'. Can you not see that your approach is simply a way of dodging the issue.

The historical route is as follows.

Despite the fact that it had been shown that light is particulate they continued to believe in the absolute validity of Maxwell's wave in aether theory.

Thus the MMX is seen as a valid measure of an observer's speed w.r.t the aether which is zero.

Then Einstein bases his theory on a postulate which describes exactly what an observer stationary w.r.t the aether would observe which throws away two axioms of physics to reconcile it mathematically.

Them Minkowski showed that Einstein's maths could be presented diagrammatically.

Then the aether idea became unpopular so now you are raising the status of an abstract mathematical construction to the status of somewhere we live in.

What physically exists in Minkowski spacetime which gives it its properties?

Is physics simply a playground for mathematicians. A mathematical equation never caused anything (other than perhaps a headache) neither can Minkowski spacetime be the cause of the physical phenomena the maths describes?

The second postulate is what differentiates between SR and ballistic theory. Both are consistent with the first. It means that either those who claim only the first postulate is needed are wrong or the two theories are mathematically identical.

--
John Kennaugh
"The nature of the physicists' default was their failure to insist sufficiently
strongly on the physical reality of the physical world." Dr Scott Murray
.

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