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New Theories / The Illusion of Velocity Theory

« on: 14/01/2022 15:39:32 »

Here is my new and original theory, called The Illusion of Velocity Theory. One facet of the theory is that light in one inertial frame of reference cannot have true velocity in another inertial frame of reference in relative motion to it unless the source is located in one and the receptor in the other. The perception that light has velocity in the inertial frame of an observer if both the source and receptor are in another inertial frame which is in motion relative to it is an illusion, thus, the title "The Illusion of Velocity Theory". If the source is in one frame and the receptor in another in motion relative to it, velocity can only be measured if the person measuring it knows the distance and time between the two, which is rarely the case, since those parameters would be constantly changing and the observer would need to be in contact with observers in the other frame to have the information required to define the parameters, so generally any perception of velocity of light, or anything else, in one frame from another in relative motion to it is illusory.

 This postulate, or recognition of objective fact, happens to invalidate most, if not all, of Einstein's thought experiments involving inertial frames in motion relative to each other, because he doesn't appear to have taken those objective facts into account, they all seem to involve the perception of the velocity of light in one inertial frame from the viewpoint of another inertial frame which is in motion relative to it, as if the velocity exists in both frames, even though the source, receptor, and all parameters of velocity are located in only one of the two frames.

First I will give my definition of velocity: the quantification of motion based on the parameters of distance and time. Obviously I couldn't measure the velocity of a baseball being thrown from a pitcher to a catcher on a ball field from a moving car. How would I do that? I could obviously only do it on the ball field.

 A similar situation occurs when I try to measure the velocity of light from a laser to a target, both being mounted on posts on the ground a certain distance apart, from a rocket traveling past them at, let's say, 150,000 km/s, for instance. Neither the laser nor the target are on the moving rocket so they do not have a particular velocity in the inertial frame of the rocket. Were I to make a rough estimate of the velocity of the laser beam, based merely on visual observation, I might think that it was moving at a velocity of only 150,000 km/s, because I and the rocket were moving at 150,000 km/s in the same direction. I might make the mistake of subtracting the velocity of the beam from my own velocity. That would be an example of "the illusion of velocity".

If the rocket were traveling in a direction opposite to the direction of the laser beam, I might make the mistake of adding my own velocity to that of the laser beam, concluding that its velocity was 450,000 km/s. That would be another example of "the illusion of velocity".

The laser beam actually had no particular velocity relative to me or the rocket, because it neither originated nor terminated in the rocket, and traveled no distance therein over any period of time therein, therefore it had no velocity in the rocket which could be measured in any way, it was an "illusion of velocity", if you will.

That, my friends, is the Illusion of Velocity Theory, accept it as valid or not, as you choose. It is my original theory, much like Special Relativity was Einstein's original theory, and this forum states that members are free to post their own original theories here, which would be appropriate to a forum section entitled "New Theories". If you find a logical fallacy in the Illusion of Velocity Theory, feel free to describe it.

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New Theories / Can You Resolve My Relativistic Paradox?

« on: 13/01/2022 18:25:24 »

I have a thought experiment type paradox, related to the Theory of Special Relativity, which I would like to see if anyone can resolve, the apparent paradox of light seemingly being sped up or slowed down to other than normal velocity in one inertial frame of reference when viewing light beams generated in another inertial frame in relative motion to it. This may have been addressed in other forms previously but I would like readers to try it again in my particular form, as sort of a challenge for amusement if nothing else. The paradox is as follows.

A rocket is in uniform motion and is of length, as measured in a stationary frame, of 300,000 km and equipped with lasers at each end, one on top and the other on the bottom, and targets on the other ends for each laser beam to hit after traveling the length of the rocket. When the back end of the rocket, which is moving left to right, as seen from the ground frame, reaches a point which is directly above a post on the ground both lasers are fired simultaneously as time is perceived in the rocket's frame. A second post is located 450,000 km to the right of the first post, from a ground based observer's perspective, and the rocket is moving toward it. There are distance markings in km between the two posts, with the zero mark at the position of the left post and running rightward to the right post.

There is a clock at the middle of the rocket and a clock on the ground in the middle of the two posts, both of which are visible to both observers in both frames. Both clocks read zero as observed from both frames at the time when the lasers are fired. The rocket is already up to speed when it passes over the posts and never slows down during the scenario. To the rocket based observers, the rocket is traveling at 150,000 km/s. I suppose it would be the same velocity to the ground based observers but I'll leave that unspecified in case a different velocity is indicated in someone's proposed solution.

At what distance markings do each observer see each target hit by its corresponding laser beam, and what are the readings on each clock when each happens, as perceived by each observer. The problem doesn't involve the actual times required for the light to reach the observers' eyes from the targets and clocks, it's assumed to be instantaneous for our purposes, the problem to be solved is the relativistic velocities of the beams in both frames. Can you perform any kind of relativity related manipulations which will result in both beams appearing to travel at 300,000 km/s to both observers? One beam in one direction would be easy, but can you do it with two beams in opposite directions at the same time? I'm sure it's been done before somewhere in some form but I'm not familiar with it so please humor me and explain how to do it one more time here. It's a discussion forum and this is my current subject for discussion.