Theory.
I shall use Einstein’s own preferred imagery - with an example nicked from Frank Atkinson's book "Time - the missing parameter in physics":
Consider a train on an embankment.Place an observer, Jim AlKhalili, on the train and another, Brian Cox, on the embankment.
Now place a trigger mechanism just in front of R (RF) and another just behind R (RB).
Use these triggers to ignite 10 Tons of Semtex, but ONLY if both have been depressed at the same time.
Set the train in motion and observe what happens. When the train’s front wheels hit RB, nothing happens – and nothing happens when the front wheels hit RF.
No surprise there. So far so good. Both Jim and Brian are safe.
Now repeat the experiment and accelerate the train to a speed being a major proportion of the speed of light and ask Jim AlKhalili what he saw exactly when the front wheels hit F.
“Yes, oh wonder, my old pal Einstein told me, that the embankment would shrink as I wuschj past R and F – and indeed it did! When my rear wheels should pass R, they actually hit RB instead and depressed the RB trigger, as the embankment had shrunk a little. And just as importantly: Einstein would have been happy to know, that I didn't observe any shrinkage of the train at all, just as he said”
“Hang on Jimmy boy – my embankment didn’t shrink – it is definitely you, who have shrunk! This confirms the relativity Albert talked about. I saw it with my own eyes: as your train became a little shorter, the rear wheel didn’t hit R, when you said it hit RB. In fact it hit RF exactly at the moment your front wheels hit F”.
So clearly the train hit RB and RF at the same time, using Einstein’s favourite example.
Did 10 Tons of Semtex send Brian and Jim into orbit and did the unlikely event of the train being in two places at the same time really happen?
Of course it didn’t.
If at this stage you want to use the Lorenz Transformation to prove the above mathematically, be my guest! It will all be confirmed - but I promised to use no maths in this proof.
Quod erat demonstrandum!!!
Guys, face it: Einstein was wrong and Jim AlKhalili is now on his way to Primark to buy edible boxer shorts, as he promised.
Because: as there is no foreshortening of the distance travelled, when we move close to the speed of light, and as we know that such speeds cause a dilation of time, it now looks as though the speed of light barrier has been broken.
Of course, Jim might save an unappetizing meal by claiming, that it is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. Pheew – he is actually right!
Because the observed time depends on the observer. Does that mean that one can travel faster than 300,000 KM/sec when time dilates?
Definitely.
At the end of 2011 scientists were ripping their hair out, because a recent CERN experiment seemed to prove, that Neutrinos could travel faster than light here on Earth.
Yes - but Neutrinos have no mass?
Hmmm - just a tiny little mass, which according to Einstein would have made the whole CERN set-up implode with a big bang?
Ahh - so perhaps there IS a Higgs Boson?
I am afraid not.
It was all down to a mistake in the measuring equipment - a fact that was communicated at a 120 dB lower volume than the original result of the experiment.
Otherwise we would have been back in almost medieval darkness.
And now the scientists at CERN have declared, that their search for the elusive Boson might be abandoned.
It isn't there.
Did you hear me? It isn't there!!
Just as elusive or non extant as a cure for the common cold.
And as Dark Matter isn't there either (a bonkers idea in the first place, only invented to explain why our galaxies don't fly off the Universe faster than we can spot them), the only way forward is: Back to the drawing board, all you bright physicists, who are glued to Einstein with Araldite - and let go of 100 year old errors.
Start with
