Asymmetric Time Dilation and the Velocity Transformation: Einstein’s Dual Versions of Relativity
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Robert J. Buenker, Fachbereich C-Mathematics Und Natural Sciences, Bergische University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany.
It is shown that in a number of key instances, Einstein’s standard theory of relativity predicts opposite results for the same quantity depending on how it is applied. Many of these involve using Einstein’s relativistic velocity transformation (RVT) to solve a given problem instead of the Lorentz transformation (LT). For example, applying the RVT to the famous case of two lightning strikes occurring at opposite ends of a train finds unequivocally that the ensuing light pulses meet at the midpoint simultaneously for both the rider and his counterpart at rest on the station platform, contrary to what is concluded (absolute remote non-simultaneity of events) in the conventional approach to this problem where the LT is invoked. The RVT also indicates that isotropic length expansion accompanies time dilation rather than the opposite effect deduced on the basis of the Fitzgerald-Lorentz length contraction (FLC) phenomenon of the LT. It is also shown that the symmetric view of time dilation, also based on the LT, whereby two observers in motion disagree as to which of two identical clocks runs slower, is impossible to realize in practice. A key finding is that experimental timing results satisfy a law of physics that is distinctly asymmetric (clock-rate proportionality)and which was in fact also mentioned in Einstein’s 1905 paper. Combining the above law with the RVT leads to an alternative (Global Positioning System) Lorentz transformation (GPS-LT) that also satisfies Einstein’s two postulates of relativity while avoiding the inherent contradiction caused by the above symmetric relationship demanded by the LT. Nothing is lost by doing this since all successful applications of Einstein’s theory that have previously been attributed to the LT can be obtained without it from the RVT alone.
Alternative Lorentz Transformation (GPS-LT), Clock-Rate Proportionality, Universal Time-Dilation Law (UTDL), Relativistic Velocity Transformation (RVT), Absolute Remote Simultaneity
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