Abstract

It is an almost generally accepted notion that the science of physics must deal with observable and measurable magnitudes only. Starting from the above standpoint and accepting the second fundamental principle of A. Einstein [A. Einstein, in The Principle of Relativity, by H.A. Lorentz, H. Minkowski, and H. Weyl (Dover Publications, New York, 1952), pp. 37?65], as described in his well-known historic 1905 paper, we conclude that the observable/measurable position of a moving material object in the perceptible space of an observer whose position is at a finite distance from the object differs from the mathematical position of this object in the geometrical space, which exists only in our mind. From the physicist?s point of view it is only this observable/measurable position (from now on called the ?conjugate position?) that is of importance. Thus the moving object appears (is observed) to be in a previously occupied position and not in the one it is really in now, a conclusion also evocative of the ?shadows? paradigm in Plato?s ?cave? [Plato, Republic, book seven, 514A?518B (Papyros Publ., Athens), pp. 400?409]. In the present paper, while examining, in light of this new concept of the conjugate position, the validity of the synchronized state of the two clocks at the ends of a moving rod (as this state was defined by Einstein himself in his historic paper), we arrive at the substantiated conclusion that said clocks are in fact synchronized, contrary to Einstein?s thesis.