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Conventionality in Distant Simultaneity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Brian Ellis  and
Peter Bowman
Brian Ellis
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Peter Bowman
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
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Abstract

In his original paper of 1905, “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”, Einstein described a procedure for synchronizing distant clocks at rest in any inertial system K. Clocks thus synchronized may be said to be in standard signal synchrony in K. It has often been claimed that there are no logical or physical reasons for preferring standard signal synchronizations to any of a range of possible non-standard ones. In this paper, the range of consistent non-standard signal synchronizations, first for any one inertial system, and second for any set of such systems, is investigated, and it is shown that the requirement of consistency leaves much less room for choice than is commonly supposed. Nevertheless consistent non-standard signal synchronizations appear to be possible. However, it is also shown that good physical reasons for preferring standard signal synchronizations exist, if the Special Theory of Relativity yields correct predictions.

The thesis of the conventionality of distant simultaneity espoused particularly by Reichenbach and Grünbaum is thus either trivialized or refuted.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , June 1967 , pp. 116 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1967

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Footnotes

∗∗

Now at La Trobe University, Melbourne

∗∗∗

Now at Indiana University. This author wishes to express his gratitude to the Australian-American Educational Foundation (Fulbright-Hayes Program) and the Danforth Foundation (Kent Program) for support of his research.

References

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