Re: Variable speed of light (was: Relativity conundrum)

[John Mallinckrodt <ajm@CSUPOMONA.EDU>]

> Two events ("light enters train" and "light leaves train") happen
> that are identifiable in either frame (otherwise any such analysis
> should be abandoned) and we are to compare the distances between
> them, x and x', and the time intervals  between them, t and t'. I
> think the only reasonable criticism of my solution should consist in
> offering a solution proving that x/t = x'/t'. Einstein's theory is
> expected to be able to resolve problems as simple as
> this one.

I disagree.  It is not Einstein's THEORY that addresses this
"problem" so much as the primary postulate OF that theory.  If "the
speed of light is the same in all reference frames," then x/t =
x'/t'.  That is REALLY all there is to it.

It is the spectacular agreement of the many seemingly bizarre
predictions of this theory with every experiment that has been
performed that give us such enormous confidence in the primary
postulate.

Of course one can apply the Lorentz transformations (or merely the
individual results--relativity of length, time, and simultaneity) to
"prove" that x/t = x'/t', but since all of those things follow
rigorously from the postulate, there is no need to make life so
difficult.

--
John Mallinckrodt        mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona          http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm