The Limimting Nature of Light-Velocity as the Casual Factor Underlying Relativity
Trevor Morris
Keywords: light-velocity, relativity, ether, superfluous
THE ETHER: ED HOC OR SUPERFLUOUS?
It is commonly accepted that Einstein's 1905 paper setting out the Special Theory of Relativity was a turning-point, and his approach has entirely displaced the earlier one developed by Lorentz (1892, 1904) and Poincare (1904). Two main reasons for this preference are usually given:
- Einstein's version is more economical because it makes a preferred frame of reference, the ether, "superfluous" (Einstein, 1905; Jeans, 1925).
- The Lorentz-Poincare approach is not satisfactory anyway because its basic postulation of the FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction was ad hoc.
