Re: Mach's principle and aether

Sue... wrote:
On Mar 13, 11:36 am, Tom Roberts <tjroberts...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sue... wrote:
On Mar 12, 11:36 pm, Tom Roberts <tjroberts...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Nobody expects SR to be a good model of the world we inhabit. After
all, it is only a LOCAL APPROXIMATION to a much better theory, GR.
When my clock is slower than yours but your clock is slower than
mine ABSURD seems a better description than APPROXIMATE.
The only absurdity is in YOUR statement, not SR. SR in no way implies
"my clock is slower than yours but your clock is slower than mine".

What SR actually says, for an appropriate physical situation, is: you
MEASURE my clock to run slower than yours, and I MEASURE your clock to
run slower than mine; the difference in our MEASUREMENT PROCEDURES makes
this happen, and makes it not be a contradiction. Basically we are
measuring different things, and this difference is inherent when
measuring the rate of a moving clock.

I see. The word MEASURE makes all the difference.

No. Please re-read what I wrote. It is the fact that the two observers use different MESUREMENT PROCEDURES that makes this not be a contradiction (each observer uses the same procedure, inverting "me" and "you", which makes their procedures overall be different). In particular, you cannot measure the rate of a moving clock without having TWO synchronized clocks at rest in your frame (and vice-versa for the other frame). This asymmetry of using two clocks to measure the rate of a single moving clock, is what generates the difference in rates.


If you would STUDY what SR actually is, rather than using a comic-book
approach, you might actually LEARN something.

It is not clear which person you equate with an author of
comic books

It is YOUR APPROACH that is appropriate for comic books, not scientific writings. <shrug>


Tom Roberts
.

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