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Re: A mixture of time dilations and constrictions



[Note to Chuck: Please take care to properly make attributions. I
have corrected the attributions in this posting so that there
should be no misunderstanding as to who wrote what.]

On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Chuck Britton wrote:

At 8:42 AM -0700 7/15/03, Stephen Speicher wrote:

Pentcho Valev wrote:

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.

A point particle clock MUST register the SAME time intervals as your
extended clock or else you would be able to detect which frame is
moving.

Size of your clock DOESN'T matter in this discussion.


I'm not sure if these words were intended as a response to Valev
or to myself, but for the record I am quite well-aware of the
many difficulties involved in analyzing complex mechanisms in
both special and general relativity. I have written before,
specifically about the difficulty in determining the location of
the proper time in a standard cesium beam atomic clock. As the
accuracy of these clocks increase with added technology, general
relativity is required to fix the proper time at some specific
connector within the mechanism itself.

--
Stephen
speicher@caltech.edu

Ignorance is just a placeholder for knowledge.

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