Abstract

This is the first in a series of papers on a new theory of relativistic kinematics (?gRelativistic Kinematics II, III, and IV,?h submitted to Phys. Essays). A new theory of relativity is deduced from assumptions whose validity is closely based on generally accepted experiments. The formalism of this theory provides a unified theoretical scheme that relativistically modifies the classical force laws: the electromagnetic force law and the gravitational force law (?gRelativistic Kinematics II and III?h). We emphasize that the relativistic transformation, the Lorentz transformation, should be interpreted as a transformation in velocity space only, not a transformation in space?]time coordinates space as is done in Einstein's theory of relativity [A. Einstein, The Meaning of Relativity, 5th ed. (Princeton University Press, 1956)]. The concept of space and time entailed by this theory is different than Einstein's space?]time concept.