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Re: A mixture of time dilations and constrictions



[Sorry for the long delay. I have been away at a conference and I
found it impossible to keep up with my e-mail.]

On Mon, 7 Jul 2003, pvalev wrote:

--- Stephen Speicher <sjs@COMPBIO.CALTECH.EDU> wrote:

On Tue, 1 Jul 2003, Pentcho Valev wrote:

Stephen Speicher wrote:


I do not know what you have been told on other lists, but
special relativity is a geometric theory with the notion
of a point-like event as a fundamental concept. Clocks
are idealized to be present at any given event, not as an
extended object but as a point-like particle. One can
deal with a clock as an extended object in relativity,
but such techniques are _vastly_ more complex than
standard analysis.

Still let us try.


No, let us not. There is no point to complex analysis when
there is a lack of understanding and agreement of basic
principles upon which such an analysis is based.


Just a question. When a clock is idealized as a point-like particle,
the analysis is standard and simple, as you say above. When one deals
with a clock as an extended object (i.e. with a real clock), the
analysis is vastly more complex and we should not discuss it since
there is a lack of understanding between us.

No. The lack of understanding I have referred to is your own, in
regard to the basic concepts of relativity. To that end I have
recommended that you carefully read and thoroughly study Taylor
and Wheeler's "Spacetime Physics," including working out all of
the exercises therein. This deceptively simple non-technical book
will give you a good conceptual understanding of the fundamentals
of the theory.

--
Stephen
speicher@caltech.edu

Ignorance is just a placeholder for knowledge.

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