Re: [Phys-l] three central misconceptions about relativity

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 10/17/2011 06:48 PM, carmelo@pacific.net.sg wrote:

> Feynman has a wonderful definition of theory: "Theory is the  
> best guess."

That's a cute saying, but it's not the whole story.  The fact 
is, as Feynman well knew, some guesses are very much better 
than others.

Winston Churchill said "I will not stand evenhandedly between
the fireman and the fire."

Also: It is a tremendous disservice to introductory students 
to replay for them every guess that can be found in the history 
of science.

> For example, Newton thought mass  
> was constant, Einstein derived longitudinal mass and transverse mass,  

That's the sort of thing I'm talking about.  Einstein's guess about 
mass as of 1905 is inconsistent with his guess about mass as of 1906,
and both of those are inconsistent with -- and very much inferior
to -- his guess about mass a few years later, after he figured out
what Minkowski had done.

This brings us back to where this thread started:  About half of
the introductory textbooks on earth (and the almighty Syllabus 
in NSW) seem utterly confident that the development of special 
relativity began(!) and ended(!) with Einstein's 1905 paper.

That's unfair to Poincaré and Lorentz, it's spectacularly unfair
to Galileo and Minkowski, and it's a disservice to students.

Especially in the introductory class, students should be given
the best available information, not something that was the best 
guess for a couple of years, more than 100 years ago.