Should physicists deal with the question of the reality of Minkowski space (or any relativistic spacetime)? It is argued that they should since this is a question about the dimensionality of the world at the macroscopic level and it is physics that should answer it.Keywords Minkowski space · Spacetime · Worldtubes · Dimensionality of the world · Special relativity · Relativity of simultaneity · Length contraction · Dour-dimensional stress · Inertia Almost a hundred years have passed since 1908 when Hermann Minkowski gave a four-dimensional formulation of special relativity according to which space and time are united into an inseparable four-dimensional entity-now called Minkowski space or simply spacetime-and macroscopic bodies are represented by four-dimensional worldtubes. But so far physicists have not addressed the question of the reality of these worldtubes and spacetime itself since they appear to assume that spacetime and the worldtubes of physical bodies do not have counterparts in the external world. The reason for such an assumption is the fact that special relativity can be equally formulated in a three-dimensional and a four-dimensional language. However, while the two representations of relativity are equivalent in a sense that they correctly describe the relativistic effects, they are diametrically different in terms of the dimensionality of the world. As the world is either three-dimensional or four-dimensional only one of the representations of relativity is correct since only one of them adequately represents the world's dimensionality at the macroscopic level.
The books in this collection are devoted to challenging and open problems at the forefront of modern science, including related philosophical debates. In contrast to typical research monographs, however, they strive to present their topics in a manner accessible also to scientifically literate non-specialists wishing to gain insight into the deeper implications and fascinating questions involved. Taken as a whole, the series reflects the need for a fundamental and interdisciplinary approach to modern science. Furthermore, it is intended to encourage active scientists in all areas to ponder over important and perhaps controversial issues beyond their own speciality. Extending from quantum physics and relativity to entropy, consciousness and complex systems -the Frontiers Collection will inspire readers to push back the frontiers of their own knowledge. To all who struggle to understand this strange world Other Recent Titles Weak Links PrefaceThis expanded second edition of Relativity and the Nature of Spacetime contains several major changes and a number of additions to different chapters. Two chapters (Chaps. 6 and 7), which discussed two specific groups of arguments against the reality of spacetime, have been transformed into appendices (A and B). Two new chapters (Chaps. 6 and 10) have been added. Chapter 6, entitled Why Is the Issue of the Nature of Spacetime So Important?, elaborates on what was Sect. 5.6 of the first edition, and addresses some recent work on the nature of spacetime -for example, the growing (or evolving) block universe model of the world, which has recently been revived by several physicists as what appears to be the last remaining alternative to the Minkowski absolute four-dimensional world (after it had become an undeniable fact that three-dimensionalism, or presentism, contradicts the relativistic experimental evidence). Chapter 10, entitled Spacetime and the Nature of Quantum Objects and based on what used to be Sects. 6.2 and 6.3 in the first edition, explores the implications of the issue of the nature of spacetime for quantum physics, in order to see whether it can provide some insight into the nature of quantum objects.Two new sections have been included, namely, Sect. 5.6 entitled Relativization of Existence and Observers in General Relativity and Sect. 7.6 entitled Probing the Anisotropic Velocity of Light by a Terrestrial Experiment. New calculations have been added to two other sections, Sect. 4.9 entitled On Coordinate and Proper Time and Sect. 7.7 entitled On the Gravitational Redshift. A new version of the twin paradox involving a third twin who accelerates twice as many times as the second twin has been included at the end of Sect. 5.5 entitled Relativization of Existence and the Twin Paradox. Additional explanations have been inserted in several more sections, including the explanation (in Sect. 5.3) of why length contraction does not cause the break of the thread connecting the two accelerating spaceships in the old, vii viii Preface apparently paradoxical thought experim...
The present paper pursues two aims. First to show that the experiment proposed by Stolakis [1986] does not lead to absolute synchronization in a single frame of reference and therefore also to the measurement of one-way velocity of light. Second, by consecutively considering the problems of the conventionality of simultaneity and of existence to show that the simultaneity of distant events can be a matter of convention only in a four-dimensional world. * I am grateful to the anonymous referees for their useful suggestions on an earlier version of this paper.
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