Spacetime without Reference Frames: An Application to the Velocity Addition Paradox

✍ Scribed by T. Matolcsi; A. Goher

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 147 KB
• Volume: 32
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1355-2198
• DOI: 10.1016/s1355-2198(00)00037-x

✦ Synopsis

Much conceptualisation in contemporary physics is bogged down by unnecessary assumptions concerning a speci"c choice of coordinates which often leads to misunderstandings and paradoxes. Considering an absolute (coordinate-free) formulation of special relativistic spacetime, we show clearly that the velocity addition paradox emerged because the use of coordinates obscures that the space of relativistic observers is &more relative' than the space of non-relativistic observers.