Re: What was original in Einsteins SR theory ?

blackboab wrote:

the two postulates of SR

1. That the speed of light is a constant in all reference frames was
actally the work of Maxwell where the quantity c appears as a constant
independent of frame of reference.

2. All inertial reference frames are similar was actually the work of
Galileo.

the gamma correction was the work of Lorentz and  Fitgerald

Poincare and Fizeau also added ideas

what EXACTLY did Einstein add ?

what in SR is uniquely Einsteins ?

He derived the laws of electrodynamics cleanly and simply. What is even more important is that he found a way of making the laws of mechanics Lorentz Invariant. Even Lorentz did not do that. Most physicists would have tortured electrodynamics into a Newtonian form. Einstein modified Newtonian mechanics to be congruent with Maxwell's equations which are Lorentz Invariant right out of the box. Speaking of boxes, Einstein worked clean outside the box. Even the brilliant Lorentz, whom Einstein loved as an intellectual father, hobbled himself with aether.

And that was just one of the things he did in 1905. He also extended Planck's quantum to electromagnetic radiant energy and derived Planck's Law clearn. He derived Avagadro's number and showed that molecules and atoms are really real. His paper on the Brownian Motion is one of the most referenced papers in the history of physics. All in a single year. And that was just a warm up.

Bob Kolker


Bob Kolker
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