- #106
2clockdude
- 23
- 0
[zoobyshoe wrote:]
Here Einstein describes both the Principle of Relativity and the
invariance of c as postulates. I don't see him asserting that one
or the other (or both) is a law of nature.
[2clockdude replies:]
You need to know the meaning of the phrase "scientific postulate."
A scientific postulate is the prediction of a law of nature (given
solely by nature, with zero interference by man) or of the physical
existence of some specific phenomenon.
Here is an example of the latter:
"The American theorists Murray Gell-Mann & George Zweig independently
postulated the existence of quarks."
[from American Physical Society - "A Century of Physics" - a
physics timeline at http://timeline.aps.org/servlet/Event?evtId=113]
Dictionary definition of postulate (verb):
To assume to be true.
A scientific postulate is a guess, a supposition, a
hunch, or a hypothesis about the nature of nature.
All scientific postulates must pertain to the nature of nature.
All scientific postulates must be experimentally testable.
Given that your claim is that Einstein claimed that his one-way
light speed invariance was a postulate, I have to ask you the
following simple question:
How can one-way light speed invariance occur experimentally?
One cannot postulate one-way invariance if one has already forced
it via one's definition of clock synchronization.
Note carefully that all scientific postulates and theories _must_
be falsifiable (or at least testable), but it is clearly impossible
to falsify (or to even test) Einstein's one-way light speed invariance
because it is _mandated_ via definition (just as are the length of an
inch and the value of water's boiling point in degrees F).
One can postulate one-way light speed invariance IFF (if and only
if) it could possibly happen in nature (at least in principle), but,
as I have taken great care to point out, one-way light speed invariance
simply cannot happen experimentally, so it cannot be scientifically
postulated.
If you really believe that Einstein postulated one-way invariance,
then tell us how this postulate could possibly be tested experimentally.
(Just show on paper a test for one-way invariance.) (There can be no
such test because one-way invariance cannot occur in nature. This is
why no one has ever performed the one-way Michelson-Morley experiment,
including Michelson, Maxwell, Lorentz, and Einstein.) (In fact, no one
has ever even shown _on paper_ how such an "experiment" could be carried
out!) (And, as I said, this is because no such "experiment" exists, not
even in principle!)
Here Einstein describes both the Principle of Relativity and the
invariance of c as postulates. I don't see him asserting that one
or the other (or both) is a law of nature.
[2clockdude replies:]
You need to know the meaning of the phrase "scientific postulate."
A scientific postulate is the prediction of a law of nature (given
solely by nature, with zero interference by man) or of the physical
existence of some specific phenomenon.
Here is an example of the latter:
"The American theorists Murray Gell-Mann & George Zweig independently
postulated the existence of quarks."
[from American Physical Society - "A Century of Physics" - a
physics timeline at http://timeline.aps.org/servlet/Event?evtId=113]
Dictionary definition of postulate (verb):
To assume to be true.
A scientific postulate is a guess, a supposition, a
hunch, or a hypothesis about the nature of nature.
All scientific postulates must pertain to the nature of nature.
All scientific postulates must be experimentally testable.
Given that your claim is that Einstein claimed that his one-way
light speed invariance was a postulate, I have to ask you the
following simple question:
How can one-way light speed invariance occur experimentally?
One cannot postulate one-way invariance if one has already forced
it via one's definition of clock synchronization.
Note carefully that all scientific postulates and theories _must_
be falsifiable (or at least testable), but it is clearly impossible
to falsify (or to even test) Einstein's one-way light speed invariance
because it is _mandated_ via definition (just as are the length of an
inch and the value of water's boiling point in degrees F).
One can postulate one-way light speed invariance IFF (if and only
if) it could possibly happen in nature (at least in principle), but,
as I have taken great care to point out, one-way light speed invariance
simply cannot happen experimentally, so it cannot be scientifically
postulated.
If you really believe that Einstein postulated one-way invariance,
then tell us how this postulate could possibly be tested experimentally.
(Just show on paper a test for one-way invariance.) (There can be no
such test because one-way invariance cannot occur in nature. This is
why no one has ever performed the one-way Michelson-Morley experiment,
including Michelson, Maxwell, Lorentz, and Einstein.) (In fact, no one
has ever even shown _on paper_ how such an "experiment" could be carried
out!) (And, as I said, this is because no such "experiment" exists, not
even in principle!)
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