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The Speed of Light Before Einstein

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Pentcho Valev

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Aug 11, 2022, 2:05:20 PM8/11/22
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"Emission theory, also called emitter theory or ballistic theory of light, was a competing theory for the special theory of relativity, explaining the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment of 1887. [...] The name most often associated with emission theory is Isaac Newton. In his corpuscular theory Newton visualized light "corpuscles" being thrown off from hot bodies at a nominal speed of c with respect to the emitting object, and obeying the usual laws of Newtonian mechanics, and we then expect light to be moving towards us with a speed that is offset by the speed of the distant emitter (c ± v)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_theory

So in 1887 the Michelson-Morley experiment was compatible with Newton's variable speed of light, c'=c+v. Accordingly, in the absence of fudge factors ("without recourse to contracting lengths, local time, or Lorentz transformations"), the experiment was incompatible with c'=c, the constant speed of light posited by the ether theory and later adopted by Einstein as his 1905 second postulate:

Banesh Hoffmann, Relativity and Its Roots, p.92: "Moreover, if light consists of particles, as Einstein had suggested in his paper submitted just thirteen weeks before this one, the second principle seems absurd: A stone thrown from a speeding train can do far more damage than one thrown from a train at rest; the speed of the particle is not independent of the motion of the object emitting it. And if we take light to consist of particles and assume that these particles obey Newton's laws, they will conform to Newtonian relativity and thus automatically account for the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment without recourse to contracting lengths, local time, or Lorentz transformations. Yet, as we have seen, Einstein resisted the temptation to account for the null result in terms of particles of light and simple, familiar Newtonian ideas, and introduced as his second postulate something that was more or less obvious when thought of in terms of waves in an ether. If it was so obvious, though, why did he need to state it as a principle? Because, having taken from the idea of light waves in the ether the one aspect that he needed, he declared early in his paper, to quote his own words, that "the introduction of a 'luminiferous ether' will prove to be superfluous." https://www.amazon.com/Relativity-Its-Roots-Banesh-Hoffmann/dp/0486406768

Theoreticians at that time could honestly have admitted that the Michelson-Morley experiment had proved Newton's variable speed of light, c'=c+v. They found it more profitable to unscrupulously distort reality, by introducing contracting lengths and other idiotic fudge factors, until the experiment became "compatible" with the constant speed of light, c'=c. Only Poincaré retained some honesty:

Henri Poincaré: "Lorentz could have accounted for the facts by supposing that the velocity of light is greater in the direction of the earth's motion than in the perpendicular direction. He preferred to admit that the velocity is the same in the two directions, but that bodies are smaller in the former than in the latter." http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/poincare.htm

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Pentcho Valev

Pentcho Valev

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Aug 12, 2022, 4:50:18 AM8/12/22
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James H. Smith, Introduction to Special Relativity, p. 42: "We must emphasize that at the time Einstein proposed it [his constant-speed-of-light postulate], there was no direct experimental evidence whatever for the speed of light being independent of the speed of its source."
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Special-Relativity-James-Smith/dp/048668895X

There wasn't and there couldn't have been (the Michelson-Morley experiment had unequivocally proved Newton's variable speed of light). Einstein "borrowed" the nonsensical postulate from the theory of the nonexistent ether:

Albert Einstein: "I introduced the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light, which I borrowed from H. A. Lorentz's theory of the stationary luminiferous ether." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_ether_theory

This constancy is OBVIOUS nonsense. Einstein wrestled with his conscience "over a lengthy period of time, to the point of despair" before introducing it:

John Stachel: "But this seems to be nonsense. How can it happen that the speed of light relative to an observer cannot be increased or decreased if that observer moves towards or away from a light beam? Einstein states that he wrestled with this problem over a lengthy period of time, to the point of despair." https://history.aip.org/exhibits/einstein/essay-einstein-relativity.htm

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