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Simultaneity by Slow Clock Transport in the Special Theory of Relativity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Adolf Grünbaum
Adolf Grünbaum*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Extract

Ellis and Bowman's account of nonstandard signal synchronizations is examined as a prolegomenon to this paper. Attention is called to some consequences of an important ambiguity in their account of the transitivity of nonstandard synchrony. Then an analysis is given of the principle of relativity (first postulate of the STR) to assess E & B's claim that this principle either restricts nonstandard signal synchronisms or rules them out altogether. It is argued that the latitude for choices of nonstandard synchronisms is not circumscribed by the factual content of the principle of relativity; instead, the exclusion of such synchronisms by this principle depends on a tacit appeal to the particular conventions implicit in certain formulations of the principle. Hence E & B's claim is rejected as an argument against the factual tenability of nonstandard synchronisms.

Type
A Panel Discussion of Simultaneity By Slow Clock Transport in The Special and General Theories of Relativity
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 1969 , pp. 5 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 by The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

*

The author wishes to thank the National Science Foundation for the support of research.

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