E9.7 - Genius or Lucky or Both? The Slow Transport of Clocks. Ask Us Whatever.

Was Einstein lucky or a genius (or perhaps both)? Joe Sorge poses this provocative question in this episode of the Ask Us Whatever Special Relativity series. Watch as Joe discusses Einstein’s method for synchronizing two distant clocks using a light signal published in 1905. With his method, the time for light to travel between clocks leads to a first-order difference in their readings that ultimately creates the illusion that light travels at the same speed with respect to all reference frames. Critics of special relativity have noted that this synchronization method is arbitrary and that other synchronization methods would not preserve a constant one-way speed of light. In 1924 Arthur Eddington pointed out that, according to special relativity, if two adjacent clocks were to be slowly separated, time-dilation would cause their readings to drift apart, and that the difference between clock readings would almost perfectly equal the first-order difference created by Einstein’s synchronization protocol. In other words, the natural act of separating otherwise identical clocks would lead to a first-order difference in readings nearly matching what is produced by Einstein’s protocol. While Einstein addressed time dilation in his 1905 paper, he described its second-order effect but did not mention this first-order effect. And so, while Einstein’s synchronization protocol nearly mimics what happens naturally to identical clocks that are separated slowly on the earth, he appeared to be unaware of this fact. While his brilliant special theory of relativity came close to mimicking an earth-based reality, the concordance in this case was due more to luck than his exceptional brilliance.

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#Einstein #SpecialRelativity #Physics #TimeDilation