Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b95js Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-29T00:31:36.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Einstein's Second Treatment of Simultaneity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Peter A. Bowman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Much has been written on the 1905 paper in which Einstein founded the special theory of relativity, his justly famous “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper” [4]. In it he innovatively defined the simultaneity of events at two distant points by imagining a light signal to be sent from one point to the other and back. In effect he defined the midpoint of the time interval between the signal's emission and return at one point to be simultaneous with its reflection at the other. And a large fraction of the writing about this paper (e.g., [19], [20], [3], [12]) has been concerned to show that, without denying any physical fact, he could have chosen any other point in the interval and thereby given an equally satisfactory alternative definition.

Type
Part III. Philosophy of Physics
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1976 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1976 , 1976 , pp. 70 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bowman, P. “The Conventionality of Slow-Transport Synchrony.” In Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 32. Edited by Michalos, A. C. and Cohen, R. S.. Dordrecht, Holland; and Boston: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1975. Pages 383-394.Google Scholar
Bowman, P. “On Conventionality and Simultaneity—Another Reply.” In Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 8. Edited by Earman, J., Glymour, C. and Stachel, J.. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976.Google Scholar
d'Abro, A. The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein. (2nd ed.) New York: Dover, 1950 (1st ed. 1927).Google Scholar
Einstein, A. “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper.” Annalen der Physik (ser. 4) 17 (1905): 891-921. (Reprinted in [9]. Pages 35- 69. All references are to the latter.)Google Scholar
Einstein, A. “Über das Relativitätsprinzip und die aus demselben gezogenen Folgerungen.” ahrbuch der Radioaktivitat und Elektronik 4 (1907): 411-462.Google Scholar
Einstein, A. “Principe de relativité et ses conséquences dans la physique moderne.” Archives des sciences physiques et naturelles (ser. 4) 29 (1910): 5-28, 125-144.Google Scholar
Einstein, A. “Relativitätstheorie.” In Die Physik. (Kultur der Gegenwart, Part 3, Sec. 3, Vol. 1.) Edited by Lechner, E.. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1915. Pages 703-713.Google Scholar
Einstein, A. Relativity: The Special and the General Theory. Translated by Lawson, R. W.. (15th ed.) New York: Crown, 1961 (1st German ed. 1917).Google Scholar
Einstein, A. et al. The Principle of Relativity. Translated by Perrett, W. and Jeffrey, G. B.. New York: Dover, n.d.Google Scholar
Ellis, B. D. “On Conventionality and Simultaneity—A Reply.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 49 (1971): 177-203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, B. D. and Bowman, P. “Conventionality in Distant Simultaneity.” Philosophy of Science 34 (1967): 116-136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grünbaum, A. Philosphical Problems of Space and Time. (2nd ed.) Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1973 (1st ed. 1963).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grünbaum, A. et al. “A Panel Discussion of Slow Clock Transport in the Special and General Theories of Relativity.” Philosophy of Science 36 (1969): 1-81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lorentz, H. A. “Electromagnetic Phenomena in a System Moving with a Velocity less than that of Light.” Proceedings of the Section of Sciences (Royal Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam) 6 (1904): 809ff. (Reprinted in [9]. Pages 9-34.)Google Scholar
Poincaré, H. “The Principles of Mathematical Physics.” The Monist 15 (1905): 1-24.Google Scholar
Poincaré, H. “Sur la dynamique de 1'électron.” Comptes rendues 140 (1905): 1504-1508.Google Scholar
Poincaré, H. “Sur la dynamique de l'électron.” Rendiconti del Circolo matematico di Palermo 21 (1906): 129-176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poincaré, H. Science and Hypothesis. New York: Dover, n.d. (original French ed. 1902).Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. Axiomatization of the Theory of Relativity. Translated by Reichenbach, M.. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969 (original German ed. 1924).Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. The Philosophy of Space and Time. Translated by Reichenbach, M. and Freund, J.. New York: Dover, 1958.Google Scholar
Salmon, W. Space, Time & Motion. Encino and Belmont, California: Dickenson Publishing Co., 1975.Google Scholar
Scribner, C. “Mistranslation of a Passage in Einstein's Original Paper on Relativity.” American Journal of Physics 31 (1963): 398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wertheimer, M. Productive Thinking. (2nd ed.) New York: Harper & Row, 1959.Google Scholar
Whitehead, A. N. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959 (original ed. 1919).Google Scholar
Winnie, J. “Special Relativity Without One-Way Velocity Assumptions.” Philosophy of Science 37 (1970): 81-99, 223-238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar