Re: The Meaning of the Relativity Principle

On May 22, 3:52 pm, dsha...@xxxxxxxxxxx (Dilap Sharma) wrote:
On Fri, 22 May 2009 "Sue..." <suzysewns...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Why are you bringing up special relativity any way?  It isn't relativity
at all. It assumes a preferred frame of reference.

<< one of Einstein's two main two reasons for
abandoning special relativity as a suitable
framework for physics was the fact that, no
less than Newtonian mechanics, special relativity
is based on the unjustified and epistemologically
problematical assumption of a preferred class
of reference frames...

I think you mis-read your reference.  It says special relativity
assumes a preferred CLASS of reference frames, namely, the inertial
reference frames, each of which is equivalent from the standpoint of
special relativity.  In contrast, you said special relativity
:"assumes a preferred frame of reference" (singular), which implies
that the various inertial frames of reference are not equivalent. So,
your understanding of what special relativity says is exactly the
opposite of what it actually says.

Again:
<< Einstein's relativity principle states that:
    All inertial frames are totally equivalent
    for the performance of all physical experiments.
In other words, it is impossible to perform a physical
experiment which differentiates in any fundamental sense
between different inertial frames. By definition, Newton's
laws of motion take the same form in all inertial frames.
Einstein generalized[1] this result in his special theory of
relativity by asserting that all laws of physics take the
same form in all inertial frames. >>
http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/em/lectures/node108.html

Again, I think you mis-read your reference. The author of that quote
NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.24.62.132

explained the relevance of those statements to time dilation as
follows:

"The relativity principle does not forbid time dilation. On the
contrary, it demands it. Time dilation has also been observed
experimentally. For instance, the lifetimes of elementary particles
generated in particle accelerators are observed to increase as the
particle velocities approach the velocity of light in the manner
prescribed by the time dilation effect. Of course, in a frame of
reference co-moving with the particles their lifetime is always the
same, as required by the relativity principle."

.

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