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Introduction.
analysis of the postulates of relativity was undertaken in order to ascertain on just which of the postulates certain fundamental conclusions of the theory depend. A moment's reflection will convince one of the importance of such an analysis. Some of the conclusions of relativity have been attacked by those who admit just the parts of the postulates from which the conclusions objected to can be derived by purely logical processes. In this paper I have sought to establish some of the most fundamental and most readily accessible conclusions of the theory on the smallest possible foundation from the postulates. This plan of treatment, instead of giving rise to more complicated arguments than those hitherto usually employed, has had the opposite effect of leading to increased simplicity both in the notions which enter and in the arguments by which proofs are reached.

When the work was taken in hand it soon became evident that there was something to be done both on the postulates themselves and on the very first theorems which are to be deduced from them, as the reader will see by reference to the treatment below. It thus appears that some of the most striking conclusions of the theory depend on only a part of the postulates. To bring this fact prominently into view in one's mind is to put the whole subject in a clearer light where one may see better the interactions of its parts and its general relations to the whole body of scientific and philosophical knowledge.