FQXi FORUM
CATEGORY: Essay Contest
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TOPIC: The Heuristic Significance of the Principle of General Relativity on the Nature of Time by Chris J Clyde
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The voting deadline has been extended to January 1, 2009.
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Essay Abstract
The principle of relativity is a basis of the laws of physics. As such it is not only explicitly at work in the kinematics of physical systems, it must also be explicitly at work in the dynamics, framing our ontological differentiation of the fundamental dimensions of physics - space, time and mass. It is therefore not enough for theory to uphold the laws with respect to the constancy of the velocity of light via formulas of relativistic transformations of kinematics. The laws of physics must emerge from a relativistic frame-work such that the dynamics of the fundamental dimensions result in the constancy of the velocity of light. " This is the reason why all attempts to obtain a deeper knowledge of the foundations of physics seem doomed to me unless the basic concepts are in accordance with general relativity from the beginning. ...The comparative smallness of what we know today as gravitational effects is not a conclusive reason for ignoring the principle of general relativity in theoretical investigations of a fundamental character. In other words, I do not believe that it is justifiable to ask: What would physics look like without gravitation?" - Albert Einstein[1] In 1905 Einstein introduced the continuum space-time and the ontological concept quantum (photon). These two ideas - “continuous” and “discrete”, would soon present one of the greatest philosophical conflicts at the foundation of physics. Each major success in theoretical physics confirms a crucial epistemological principle of physics; that all such conflicts arise from epistemological errors shaping flawed models of nature as apposed to indications of an incomprehensible structure of nature. The model of time presented here not only removes the conflict of discrete and continuous, but in doing so removes the incomprehensible structure of nature or, the “strangeness” of quantum behavior.
Author Bio
Chris is presently managing a commercial photography and digital imaging studio. He and his wife Kim live just outside a small town north of Toronto with their Irish Wolfhound - Scout. When Chris is not contemplating the principles and problems of physics he is usually pursuing his hobbies in art, music, wine and filling in very large wholes in the back yard.
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