- #36
geistkiesel
- 540
- 1
russ_watters said:My above post is a lot to chew on, but let me at least give you some short answers to some of your other questions.
BTW: A statement like that shows you have a great attitude - you're willing to learn. Good start. If you have information such as your measured wavelength and your measured speed for the source, you can indeed calculate how the wave would appear to an observer stationary with respect to the source (or to any other observer given the relative speeds involved). I think what the other guys were trying to tell you is that if you don't know anything about distance or relative motion, you won't have any idea what the source thinks its wavelegth is - and that's ok. Any two observers may measure different and equally valid, wavelengths. Part of the problem with this analogy is that a train is sloooow with regard to the speed of light. To get half the wavelength (in Galilean Relativity), that train has to be traveling at half the speed of light. At such speeds, time dilation and length contraction are noticeable in human time and distance scales. The problem is (and this is true in Galilean Relativity too as seen in the ping pong ball thought experiment), two observers wil not necessarily agree on that distance.What I want to do is ask what YOU think about the observer’s distance and show the repercussions of each choice. Both can be measure and calculated.
The math you have learned will show you what an oscilloscope will measure when the distance the observer has traveled is not included. You will always be right as long as the one-second screen of the oscilloscope represents 186,000 miles.
The math I use includes the distance the observer has traveled. The one-second screen of my oscilloscope represents 186,000 miles plus the distance the observer has traveled (or minus if traveling away from source). The oscilloscope will show a change in frequency and speed, but not wavelength.[/qutoe] Here's the problem: since distance and time are relative, (and in Galilean Relativity, distance is relative), using time from one frame and distance from another doesn't fit the definition of "speed." Both forms of relativity say the laws of the universe are the same for all observers: so speed has to be your measured distance and your measured time. Otherwise you could arbitrarily pick any distance and any time for any event and come up with any answer you like. Don't think so? - is that train moving at 55mph or 0mph? To a person on the train, the train is stationary. To a person next to it, its moving at 55mph. Who is right? Both. What if I tell you I can throw a baseball at 110mph becasue I throw it forward at 55 and the train is moving at 55? Will you accept that I throw harder than Randy Johnson? How about 1055mph due to the rotation of the earth? You won't because its an apples-to-oranges comparison of speeds and distances measured in different frames.
Well here's the thing about SR - its really quite elegant. SR says only two things:
-The laws of the universe are the same for any observer, regardless of inertial (non-accelerating) frame of reference.
-The speed of light is constant.
Thats it. No hoops. All of the implications follow directly from these two premises.
I read Grounded's methodology as adding a twist unconsidered by SR. All of his suggested calculations while heretical to a casual observer, have not been scrutinized directly and specifically. Tom_Mattson's mathematical models of ME and Galilean frames, while impressive, did not specifically address any of the measurment structures and issues suggested by Grounded.
This is a model screaming for an inside out analysis. The SR hammer has been used to its fullest and the model stil enjoys interest in potential development.