The Special Relativity Theory does not differ from the classical
mechanics through the assumption of this postulate, but only through the
postulate of the constancy of light-velocity in vacuum which, when
combined with the special relativity postulate, gives in a well-known
way, the relativity of synchronism as well as the Lorenz-transformation,
with all the relations between moving rigid bodies and clocks.
The modification which the theory of space and time has undergone
through the special relativity theory, is indeed a profound one, but a
weightier point remains untouched. According to the special relativity
theory, the theorems of geometry are to be looked upon as the laws about
any possible relative positions of solid bodies at rest, and more
generally the theorems of kinematics, as theorems which describe the
relation between measurable bodies and clocks. Consider two material
points of a solid body at rest; then according to these conceptions
there corresponds to these points a wholly definite extent of length,
independent of kind, position, orientation and time of the body.
Similarly let us consider two positions of the pointers of a clock which
is at rest with reference to a co-ordinate system; then to these
positions, there always corresponds, a time-interval of a definite
length, independent of time and place. It would be soon shown that the
general relativity theory can not hold fast to this simple physical
significance of space and time.
§ 2. About the reasons which explain the extension of the
relativity-postulate.
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