The logic of modern physicsBridgman, P. W. (Percy Williams)
Philosophy
The logic of modern physics
Bridgman, P. W. (Percy Williams)
Physics -- Philosophy
It is of interest to describe briefly Einstein's actual operations for
measuring the length of a body in motion; it will show how operations
which may be simple from a mathematical point of view may appear
complicated from a physical viewpoint. The observer who is to measure
the length of a moving object must first extend over his entire plane of
reference (for simplicity the problem is considered two-dimensional) a
system of time coordinates, _i.e._, at each point of his plane of
reference there must be a clock, and all these clocks must be
synchronized. At each clock an observer must be situated. Now to find
the length of the moving object at a specified instant of time (it is a
subject for later investigation to find whether its length is a function
of time), the two observers who happen to coincide in position with the
two ends of the object at the specified time on their clocks are
required to find the distance between their two positions by the
procedure for measuring the length of a stationary object, and this
distance is by definition the length of the moving object in the given
reference system. This procedure for measuring the length of a body in
motion hence involves the idea of simultaneity, through the simultaneous
position of the two ends of the rod, and we have seen that the
operations by which simultaneity are determined are relative, changing
when the motion of the system changes. We hence are prepared to find a
change in the length of a body when the velocity of the measuring system
changes, and this in fact is what happens. The precise numerical
dependence is worked out by Einstein, and involves other considerations,
in which we are not interested at present.
The two sorts of length, the naive one and that of Einstein, have
certain features in common. In either case in the limit, as the velocity
of the measuring system approaches zero, the operations approach those
for measuring the length of a stationary object. This, of course, is a
requirement in any good definition, imposed by considerations of
convenience, and it is too obvious a matter to need elaboration. Another
feature is that the operations equivalent to either concept both involve
the motion of the system, so that we must recognize the possibility that
the length of a moving object may be a function of its velocity. It is a
matter of experiment, unpredictable until tried, that within the limits
of present experimental error the naive length is not affected by
motion, and Einstein's length is.
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