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Abstract


Is Simultaneity Relative or Absolute?

Joseph Levy
Year: 1997
Keywords: Galileo, electromagnetism, Maxwell, simultaneity, relativity, synchronization of clocks
Due to their conviction that the laws of nature must be identical in any inertial frame, the physicists of the beginning of the twentieth century were led to extend the relativity of Galileo to the electromagnetism of Maxwell, but this seemed to imply the abondonment of universal time and absolute simultaneity.

In a previous paper* we have criticised, from a logical viewpoint, the criteria intended to demonstrate the relativity of simultaneity and we have proposed replacing them by other criteria. According to these, the relativity of simulteneity was called into question.

We propose here a rigorous experimental method intended to verify the simultaneity of two events. By means of this device, we demonstrate that one can define an absolute simultaneity. The method also permits an exact synchronization of clocks. We then demonstrate that the relativity of time of Einstein's theory must be discarded. On the other hand, the relativity principle appears as an approximation only, valid for bodies moving at low speeds relative to one another.

On the contrary, the slowing of the clocks moving with respect to the ether can be maintained. But this does not mean that Lorentz's theory can be retained without change.