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![[parent]](https://images.physicslibrary.org/images/uparrow.png) Viewing Message
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| ``Re: 1905-2005''
by zorpoid on 2008-10-15 02:42:15 |
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| Greetings Elias,
Actually several physicist in the later half of the 19th century came up with the "Lorentz" transforms in one context or another. Important names are Joseph Larmor (1857-1942), George Francis FitzGerald (1851), Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853-1928) and Woldemar Voight (1850-1919). It was Henri Poincare (1854-1912) who named the equations for Lorentz in 1905 even though he was not the first to make use of them.
There were a number of ideas that this generation of physicist were kicking around. Most of these were concerned with the structure of the atom and radiation. J. J, Thomson (1856-1940) had noticed that high speed electrons, in his cathode ray experiments, seemed to gain extra weight. This led to the idea that mass was some kind of electrical effect.
Another idea that followed from Thomson's work is that an atom is made of charged particles. The oscillations of these charged particles, it was hypothesized, were responsible for "electric waves". These waves, predicted by Maxwell, were seen as a kind of stress in a medium called the ether.
These oscillations bring up the idea of the "electrodynamics of moving bodies", which was something of a theme in the day. One of the major misconceptions in all this was Newton's concept of an absolute frame of reference. Such a frame proved to be difficult to pin down, but the ether seemed to be the answer.
Lorentz, using these and other ideas, made a forceful and determined attack on this constellation of problems. He was seeking a theory in what we would now call the classical physics. He was widely regarded as an exceptional physicist and most thought it was just a matter of time until he sorted it all out.
As we now know the classical view was not up to the task and it was Einstein that threw off the old view put it all in order.
As for Mach principle and Goedel's take on relativity theory, both topics are interesting stories. However, it's late here and I should get myself off to bed.
Another time then,
Zorpoid
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