This article presents a new physical interpretation in which relativistic effects emerge as a result of rationing of Newtonian time into spatial and intrinsic motions. Unlike the special theory of relativity, this theory does not need to postulate that speed of light c is constant for all observers. The constancy of speed of light in a limited sense, with respect to its source frame, emerges from a simple microscopic behavioural model.
This theory postulates that :
- Postulate 1: The speed of spatial motion of a particle is always c.
- Postulate 2: Spatial motion and intrinsic motion continuously, linearly, and symmetrically rub into each other.
Postulate 1 seems reasonable because the Dirac model of electron indicates that the speed in the intrinsic degrees of freedom of an electron is always c. If the spatial speed was different from $c$ then transitioning between spatial and intrinsic motions would have entailed repeated cycles of high accelerations and deccelerations. Postulate 2 is also reasonable because it is the simplest and most symmetric way for the spatial and intrinsic time-shares to co-evolve in time.
An observer's physical measure of time is entirely encoded by its intrinsic motions. This is the relativistic time. The time spent in spatial motion does not cause any change of the particle's internal configuration, and therefore does not contribute to its measurable time. Thus if an observer races against a photon, the photon will always lead ahead with a relative speed of $c$ because light advances with respect to the observer only for the duration of the observer's intrinsic motion, i.e. for the full duration of its measurable time. During spatial motion, that observer moves at the same speed as the photon. Consequently the observed relative speed of light - i.e. the spatial advance of light divided by the measurable time is always c. Thus in the limited sense of the source's frame racing a photon, constancy of its measured speed is a deduced result here. The broader question of relative velocity of an observer with respect to a photon or a light wave-front is clarified in section.
