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  #151 (permalink)  
Old 21-December-2005, 02:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madman
so why don't we have one all-encompassing formula based on something like 45dg?...that is always applied without exception?
First, no real light-clock will concern itself with the one-way trip. It will always measure time based on the round-trip of the pulse, and for the round trip the simplified gamma equation gives the correct answer regardless of the orientation of the clock.

Second, if you want a general formula that will give the actual one-way trip conversion for any orientation, there is one, and I gave it before:

Quote:
Originally Posted by SeanF
The actual equation for time dilation is given towards the end of Part One, Section 3, in Einstein's paper. It is τ=β(t-vx/c²) where β=1/sqr(1-v²/c²).
The x and t values in that equation will depend on the orientation and length of the clock.
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  #152 (permalink)  
Old 21-December-2005, 04:06 PM
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Here's a copy of the original paper. You'll note that there's no perpendicular light clock involved in the derivation of what we call gamma (Einstein used beta for this term). Perhaps you can instead tell us what you think is wrong with the derivation Einstein actually used.
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Old 21-December-2005, 04:16 PM
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Perhaps you can instead tell us what you think is wrong with the derivation Einstein actually used.
Good luck, I asked that a week ago. Maybe you'll get an answer.
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Old 21-December-2005, 11:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madman
what i'd like to know is, why do we have the gamma formula to begin with?

it is based on a perpendicular light clock...which is an impossibility to maintain in reality.
There is a very nice derivation of the Lorentz transformation that makes very few assumptions other than those relating to the basic symmetries of a very general flat spacetime, e.g. translational symmetry. At the end, you are left with a constant that determines if the spacetime is Galilean (the constant is infinite), Euclidean (the constant is positive), or Minkowski (the constant is negative). You can then determine the value of the constant from experiment and show that this means that spacetime possesses the geometry of Minkowski and the transformation from one inertial frame to another is given by the Lorentz transformation.

I'll try and track down a copy.
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