Alex Duthie - Its about Time: The Illusion of Einsteins Time Dilation Explained

Its About Time

The Illusion of Einsteins Time Dilation Explained

Copyright 2009, 2012 by Alex Duthie, PEng.

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ISBN: 978-1-4697-5826-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4697-5824-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4697-5825-1 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 02/23/2012

Contents

History of Modern Physics

What Is Time?

History of Earth Time

Our Solar System

Law of Inertia

Newtons Laws of Motion

Keplers Laws of Planetary Motion

Einsteins Theories of Relativity

What Are Matter, Space, and Light?

Curvature and Space-Time

The Probable Shape of the Universe

Physicists, Milestones of the Past

Time, Evolution versus Creation

Magnetism

Black Holes

Some Outlandish Theories

The Hierarchy of Time

Time Dilation Challenged

The Scientific Method

What Now?

I dedicate this book to my four grandchildren, Tyler, Trevor, Mike and Nicole who add so much enjoyment and richness to my life.

I am indebted to a few people for their interest, support and comments about this book.

My brother Bill who lives in Scotland, and his friend Dale Ewan, who lives in Mahomet, Illinois, both provided me with complete editing comments of my manuscript; my good friend Bob Hammett who also read my manuscript and provided excellent comments; the iUniverse editing department provided the finishing editing touches. To all those I owe a debt of gratitude.

I started writing this book for a number of reasons. Being a mechanical engineer, I have always been interested in the nature of things. I have been attending scientific lectures for many years at Perimeter Institute, where leading physicists come to lecture on their theories of the makeup of the universe.

My interest in time peaked when coincidentally two of my friends, who had never loaned me books before, within a two-week period each loaned me a book on time: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, and Time Lord by Clark Blaise.

Another reason I wanted to write this book was because of what was happening in the educational field. One day my fifteen-year-old grandson came home from school and explained to me about how travel works, according to Einsteins teachings. He explained that clocks slow down when they travel very fast and that people would not age as fast if they were on a spaceship traveling at, or near, the speed of light. In addition, our local science museum typically presents many simulations of various time and space hypotheses currently in vogue, which are not corroborated, and some of these hypotheses are being presented by our educators as established fact. The public is in no position to assess the technical validity of some claims that are being made. These claims are not obvious or intuitive extrapolations of the physical laws that govern daily life.

This book challenges some of the concepts being put forward by some of the theoretical physicists of our time. Scientists have presented the concepts under discussion here in many public lectures, and I refer to some in the bibliography.

In this book I have covered much historical data, such as the history of Earth time, along with short biographies of physicists who have contributed significantly to our knowledge base relating to the main theme of this book.

I also have included some of the technical information relating to Newton and Keplers laws to help our understanding of the related astronomical matters. Where I have included technical discussions in this writing I have appended them at the end of the chapter.

Near the end of the book I have included a chapter titled What Now? This chapter outlines some procedural guidelines for young physicists. It also suggests opportunities for academic institutions to become custodians of a central repository of reference data, which would facilitate future physicists in more efficient and fruitful endeavors.

I included in Chapter 18 the major challenges to Einsteins theories and to the current thinking on time dilation.

In this book there is no challenge to the mathematics. Mathematics is a pure and exact science. It is excellent when a physicist is able to have mathematics represent natural phenomena; then the mathematics becomes a necessary tool for our simplified understanding of nature. Eventually all of nature may be reduced to mathematical terms. The challenge here, of course, is to theoretical mathematics, which has no proven relationship to natural phenomena.

There is a chicken-and-egg analogy here. What comes first, the chicken or the egg? We must start out with two columns, the first being a listing of natures phenomena, and the second being a listing of the mathematics to explain natures phenomena. Hopefully physicists recognize that the first column must come first.

I am a layperson, and I wrote this book for the layperson. The contents of this book are basically my opinions and comments. I understand that comments and opinions are free, but facts are sacred. My purpose is to try to get to the facts.

While writing this book I was unaware of the scientific writings of John W. Moffat. When this book was in its final draft (I thought) I talked to John Moffat, who told me he had a new book about to be published. This new book is called Reinventing Gravity . Having now read Reinventing Gravity , I feel that some of my challenges to the established thinking have been vindicated. I also believe that the whole field of cosmology is about to undergo a total upheaval. Although there will be many physicists who will challenge Moffats theories, I believe his theories will successfully stand up to their scrutiny. I believe that Moffats work in Mo difying G ravity (MOG) shows the most promise since Einsteins theories of relativity. Like Newton and Kepler, Moffats work was developed to fit data gleaned from tests and observations of the cosmos.

Synopsis of Chapters

This book provides a better understanding of the nature of things for physicists and laypeople alike. Each chapter covers its own specific area of interest, and for that reason, this synopsis of chapters is included.

Chapter 1: History of Modern Physics

This chapter discusses how physics has evolved little from the time Einstein published his theories of relativity to the modern day. Most theoretical physicists today are mathematicians, having very little interaction with the realities of nature.