Page:Benton 1959 The Clock Problem (Clock Paradox) in Relativity.djvu/32

 must be used to establish times at distant points. When the setting clock velocity is small, the expressions approximate to the original Lorentz transformations.

A new approach to the measurement of the velocity of light is discussed, using modern technical advances to construct two accurate clocks to measure the velocity over a single path instead of an up-and-down path. Relativistic implications and equations of such a measurement are discussed.

Discusses what happens to the measurement of velocity when the clocks used for the determination of time are atomic clocks, which vary in their rate, when moving, according to a relation for which experimental evidence has been obtained.

This study has been based on the use of three postulates: first, the physical fact of the independence of the velocity of light from its source or other matter; second, the principle of relativity of Poincaré; third, the operational principle of Bridgman, which requires that all symbols represent purely physical operations and observations. By the use of these, new expressions for the description of events on relatively moving bodies have been obtained. These expressions are similar to the Lorentz transformations as modified by Poincaré but contain additional terms which provide the operational definitions lacking in the Lorentz-Poincaré equations. From the philosophical standpoint the importance of these revised equations lies in the fact that they dissipate the logical impasse and the mysticism which have been long associated with this subject. Also of philosophical import is that with the abandonment of the "principle" of the constancy of the velocity of light, the geometries which have been based on it, with their fusion of space and time, must be denied their claim to be a true description of the physical world.

Detailed account of performance and conditions affecting it.