Thus the above set of electro-magnetic experiments contradict the
Hertz-Heaviside equations, and these must be abandoned.
[P. C. M.]
Note 2.
Lorentz Transformation.
Lorentz. Versuch einer theorie der elektrischen und optischen
Erscheinungen im bewegten Körpern.
(Leiden—1895).
Lorentz. Theory of Electrons (English edition), pages 197-200, 230, also
notes 73, 86, pages 318, 328.
Lorentz wanted to explain the Michelson-Morley null-effect. In order to
do so, it was obviously necessary to explain the Fitzgerald contraction.
Lorentz worked on the hypothesis that an electron itself undergoes
contraction when moving. He introduced new variables for the moving
system defined by the following set of equations.
_x¹_ = β(_x_ - _ut_), _y¹_ = _y_, _z¹_ = _z_, _t¹_ = β(_t_ -
(_u_/_c²_)·_x_)
and for velocities, used
_v__{_x_}¹ = β²_v__{_x_} + _u_, _v__{_y_}¹ = β_v__{_y_}, _v__{_z_}¹
= β_v__{_z_} and ρ¹ = ρ/β.
With the help of the above set of equations, which is known as the
Lorentz transformation, he succeeded in showing how the Fitzgerald
contraction results as a consequence of “fortuitous compensation of
opposing effects.”
It should be observed that the Lorentz transformation is not identical
with the Einstein transformation. The Einsteinian addition of velocities
is quite different as also the expression for the “relative” density of
electricity.
It is true that the Maxwell-Lorentz field equations remain _practically_
unchanged by the Lorentz transformation, but they _are_ changed to some
slight extent. One marked advantage of the Einstein transformation
consists in the fact that the field equations of a moving system
preserve _exactly_ the same form as those of a stationary system.
It should also be noted that the Fresnelian convection coefficient comes
out in the theory of relativity as a direct consequence of Einstein’s
addition of velocities and is quite independent of any electrical theory
of matter.
[P. C. M.]
Note 3.
See Lorentz, Theory of Electrons (English edition), § 181, page 213.
H. Poincare, Sur la dynamique ‘electron, Rendiconti del circolo
matematico di Palermo 21 (1906).
[P. C. M.]
Note 4.
Relativity Theorem and Relativity-Principle.
Lorentz showed that the Maxwell-Lorentz system of electromagnetic
field-equations remained practically unchanged by the Lorentz
transformation. Thus the electromagnetic laws of Maxwell and Lorentz
_can be definitely proved_ “to be independent of the manner in which
they are referred to two coordinate systems which have a uniform
translatory motion relative to each other.” (See “Electrodynamics of
Moving Bodies,” page 5.) Thus so far as the electromagnetic laws are
concerned, the principle of relativity _can be proved to be true_.
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