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Babbeus
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My question is: is this derivation of length contraction considered to be sound and correct today? Are they treated in modern textbooks?
What Lorentz was able to show was that Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism predicted precisely this much longitudinal contraction.To get this result, Lorentz modeled matter composing a body as a large collection of electric charges, all held together in equilibrium by electric and magnetic forces.
The equilibrium was disturbed if the entire object was set in motion. Moving electric charges create magnetic fields that in turn act back of electric charges. All these changes settle out into a new equilibrium configuration. What Lorentz could show was that new configuration consists in a contraction of the body in the direction of motion in just the amount needed to eradicate a possible result from the Michelson Morley experiment.
My question is: is this derivation of length contraction considered to be sound and correct today? Are they treated in modern textbooks?