A QUESTION OF TIMECONCLUSIONSThe essence of Einstein's thinking is that time is relative. "Time is relative" is a short way of saying that clocks on two bodies in relative motion cannot be synchronized. In his original work, in 1905, Einstein uses a concept of synchronization that is shown to be ambiguous and erroneous. Counter examples are given to show that clocks on two bodies in relative motion can in fact be synchronized. Einstein believes that synchronization cannot be divorced from communication. It is by separating these processes that synchronization becomes possible. None of his arguments - about simultaneity, about the Michelson-Morley Experiment, about the Lorentz Transformation, and about the 'red shift' is free of ambiguities and false inferences. This much is certain: His two basic principle of Special Relativity Theory (SRT) are contradictory. The result of the Michelson-Morley experiment contradicts his second principle, the assertion that the speed of light is an absolute constant and that the velocity of light is independent of the motion of the source. There is no such evidence against Einstein’s first principle. The first principle implies the symmetry of source and receiver as far as movement is concerned in two inertial systems. For the Doppler effect this is shown to yield a formula that depends only on the separation rate of source and receiver. While this is true as well under SRT, the formula under Newtonian thinking yields a dramatically different result for velocities approaching the speed of light. The important consequence of this for cosmology is that our inferences about the age and size of the universe, based on Einstein's thinking, are about a factor of two too large. This in turn means that the density of the universe is almost a factor 10 greater than currently estimated. There are contradictions, false inferences, imprecise thought experiments, ambiguous concepts, and questionable reasoning sprinkled throughout the two books on relativity that Einstein published. The mathematics is not in question, only the relation of the mathematical models to physical reality. The main points that should be noted are listed below: It is shown that the principle that underlies General Relativity is contrary to the fact that the laws of motion are different for a body accelerated by a specific force, as opposed to a general force (gravity). The concept 'simultaneity' has two distinct and separate meanings that Einstein did not perceive. There is event simultaneity and observer simultaneity. The former is relative, but it is the latter that is required for SRT. It was shown that using the Doppler effect in two directions allows for synchronization after communication. His errors in reasoning led him to the erroneous conclusion that time is relative. The Lorentz Transformation was derived using Einstein's assumptions. The transformation is shown to be correct only for a 'round trip', not for a single direct path as is required for Special Relativity. Since relative time is required in order to use the Lorentz Transformation to derive SRT, this means that SRT is not logically tenable. The theory of relativity leads to an interpretation of recent astronomical data that puts the age of the universe at over 12 billion years. This is based on an interpretation of the Doppler shift based on SRT. Without SRT, a reasonable interpretation of type 1A supernovae is obtained by adding the age when these stars were formed, (near the beginning of time), to the life time of stars whose supernovae are now visible, (about three billion years), and adding the time for the light to reach us (based on the minimum red shift, also about three billion years). This gives us an estimate about half that age. That is the estimate we get if we take 'time' as invariant, and the speed of light as constant as measured by an observer at rest with respect to the source. The Doppler effect, under Newtonian thinking, related to the data of type 1A supernovae, suggests that the initial velocity at the time of the ’big bang’ was nearer to half the velocity of light, c/2, than to c. TABLE OF CONTENTS SIMULTANEITY AND SYNCHRONIZATION THE MICHELSON-MORLEY EXPERIMENT APPENDIX I: TYPE 1A SUPERNOVAE APPENDIX II: A EUCLIDEAN MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE APPENDIX III: MASS AND ENERGY
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