- #1
einswine
- 19
- 48
bcrowell wrote:
"Lorentz contraction doesn't describe what we see. When we see things, that's an optical measurement. Relativistic optics is a whole separate subject. Lorentz contraction describes the results of the kind of elaborate surveying process that we have to undertake in order to lay out a coordinate system.
Lorentz contraction also doesn't describe the reduction in length of an accelerated object. To prove the equation for Lorentz contraction, we assume an inertial world-tube, which we then slice with a surface of simultaneity. The derivation doesn't hold if the world-tube is noninertial."
Please pardon my obtuseness but does that mean it is specious to use Lorentz contraction to explain the (non?) relation between "massless particles" and the concept of photon traversal time; or contrariwise?
My gratitude for any clarification,
einswine (the befuddled)
"Lorentz contraction doesn't describe what we see. When we see things, that's an optical measurement. Relativistic optics is a whole separate subject. Lorentz contraction describes the results of the kind of elaborate surveying process that we have to undertake in order to lay out a coordinate system.
Lorentz contraction also doesn't describe the reduction in length of an accelerated object. To prove the equation for Lorentz contraction, we assume an inertial world-tube, which we then slice with a surface of simultaneity. The derivation doesn't hold if the world-tube is noninertial."
Please pardon my obtuseness but does that mean it is specious to use Lorentz contraction to explain the (non?) relation between "massless particles" and the concept of photon traversal time; or contrariwise?
My gratitude for any clarification,
einswine (the befuddled)