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verification of the derived propositions [a priori/logical truths] by Of special interest are pions moving at impossible speed. sense experiences [a posteriori/empirical truths] .... Evolution is According to calculations performed independently by British proceeding in the direction of increasing simplicity of the logical astronomer/physicist Sir James Jeans (1877—1946)"* and by the basis [principles] ... We must always be ready to change these lesser-known Italian industrialist Olinto De Pretto (1857-1921) in notions—that is to say, the axiomatic basis of physics—in order 1904, their mass is exactly equal to mc’, where "m" is the to do justice to perceived facts in the most perfect way logically." hypothetical mass of the photons. Einstein extended this idea to Einstein soon changed the story in his booklet Essays on concern all moving bodies by ascribing to them a "resting energy" Science, admitting that he accepted the Lorentz transformations as of E= mc’. When asked what was the glory of the Special Theory the only solution to make the speed of light in the Maxwell of Relativity, he specifically named the energy formula. But was equations appear constant to all observers—exactly as Lorentz it his own? And can all matter indeed be transformed into pure and Poincaré had speculated! energy? Thus, according to mathematician Edmund Whittaker: '* Later, when the nuclear bomb was produced—after Einstein "Einstein had published a paper which set forth the Relativity had signed a petition for its construction—many scientists Theory of Poincaré and Lorentz with some amplifications, and claimed to have used the E = mc? formula as a basis for releasing which attracted much attention!" When confronted with these the potential energy of the atom. Or was the energy calculation allegations, Einstein denied them as actually based on other, more complicated irrelevant—but were they irrelevant? formulas? Was it possible for one interested in According to French professor of Lorentz's and Poincaré's work not to have chemistry C. Louis Kervran (1901-83) in noticed that they had started to change the Biological Transmutations (1962), this interpretation of the original equations from a " i formula can never be applied to the atomic real physical phenomenon to one concerning But matter Is not nucleus because "...it is a mistake that matter information? transformed into can be transformed into energy. The . . statement is false, even though it is found in Einstein in Wonderland energy; matter Is ractically all books on nuclear physics. We Relativity theory seemed to contradict essentially composed now only how to use the bonding energy common sense when interpreted the between nucleons (which seems to come Einsteinian way. Apart from making the speed of protons and from mesons). But matter is not transformed of light, "c", a universal constant, it leads to neutrons, and in into energy; matter is essentially composed some strange results concerning the wa . sat of protons and neutrons, and in atomic we experience the world when using fight atomic fission the fission the nucleons do not disappear but as a primary source of formation. 1 nucleons do not are found in the Hssion products If some ime on a moving object seems to slow . neutrons are expelled, they are not down, and scientists believing the new disappear but are destroyed. For matter to disappear, it found in the fission products." message assumed that if you put a man in must be opposed by antimatter." a rocket and sent him into the universe at sufficiently high speed, he might never grow old. But according to Einsteinian wisdom, all movements are relative, so the man in the rocket may believe it is the Earth that is moving and he feels that he is the one losing out on time. In the havoc created by such arguments, even Einstein seemed to forget his original s. These phenomena were not real: they were apparent mathematical "space" (the proper term being "manifold", not to be because all information between the two—the astronaut and the confused with the concept of space used to mean a room, nature Earth—was transmitted by signals going at a finite speed, "c". It or the cosmos). The "space" he was thinking of was not our was not about space at all: it was about transmission of physical "outer space", but a mathematical construct of four information!"* equally important distances that can be measured with the same Along the same line of thinking, information about lengths also yardstick: height, length, breadth and the distance travelled by changed: lengths seemed shorter in the moving body. According light in a certain period of time (light distance = c x seconds). Backward Thinking In 1906, Professor Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909), Einstein's old teacher who had scornfully called him a "lazy dog" a few years earlier, presented a new idea to Einstein. If the Lorentz transformations were correct, then they presented a rotation in a four-dimensional to the original Lorentz interpretation, they did indeed become To make things clearer: mathematical space starts out with the shorter. But Einstein argued that it was only an illusory effect experiences of the three dimensions of length, height and breadth caused by the way we measure distances by the use of signals when discussing space, and then makes a picture of the outer going at finite speed, emitted from objects moving past the space on paper and starts making formulas for how to go around observer. One would expect that if it's an optical illusion, it when measuring distances and describing objects located in this would be possible to photograph the effect; but Einstein denied paper-space that is an abstract of real space. It is all paperwork this, as no one in his time had actually attempted to do so.'* where the paper-world corresponds to the experiences we have in Whereas clocks seem to tick slower and lengths seem to shrink, the real world. In this paper-world, we deal with known topics mass in the Relative Wonderland seems to increase and become such as distance, movement, volumes, shapes, surfaces, etc., and heavier—for the observer at rest. But of course, all is relative, so establish formulas or, rather, rules for how to express these the man in the spaceship will claim that it is Earthlings who are tangible magnitudes known to our senses. getting heavier. So, who is putting on weight? It is all "a piece of cake", even when maths goes sour, because energy; matter is essentially composed of protons and neutrons, and in atomic fission the disappear but are found in the fission products." NEXUS = 45 "But matter is not transformed into nucleons do not AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2007 www.nexusmagazine.com