Relativity is one of the concepts that physics has inherited from philosophy. Two observers view and interpret same event differently. Two observers view the reality in different ways because of a number of factors like observational limitations, relative position vis-à-vis the event, state of the mind, experience, and mental level of the observers. In fact, an observer may see an event and yet not notice it.

This is the essence of philosophy of relativity.

The essence of the science of relativity is to observe the measurable change in the reality and determine the factors that bring about a change in the physical reality.

How an observer views and interprets the bouncing ball in the train is a concern of philosopher and how the motion affects physical structure of the ball is a problem that is of interest to a scientist.

Science will be interested in the bouncing ball in the train only if there is a change in the physical structure of the ball due to motion or due to any other reasons. Science then will try and ascertain the nature of the change in the physical structure of the ball and identify the factors that bring about this change.

Time may appear to run faster or slower to a person depending on his mood. Science will like to get involved only if change in mood of a person changes his biological clock.

This is the essence of the science of relativity. We have mixed philosophy and science of relativity and hence we encounter all sorts of strange and counter-intuitive ideas emerging from theory of relativity.

We cannot imagine a world where no sense of time prevails. A clock, some sort of instrument, to measure the time probably would have been the first machine created by man. Anyway, time remains an abstract idea. For all practical purposes, we need to assume uniform flow of time but science needs precise calculations and we must appreciate brilliance of Einstein for suggesting that time does not flow uniformly.

Lorentz Transformations bring a paradigm shift in our view of the world. Lorentz Transformations announce that physical reality changes due to change in velocity.

This theory examines the concepts arising out of Lorentz Transformations in detail and identifies the factors that change the physical reality. Motion is just one of the several factors that change the physical reality. There is only one cause behind all the factors (including motion) that change the physical reality. But mathematics fails us in relating motion with the concepts arising out of Lorentz transformations as periodicity of motion becomes irrelevant in the mathematics and change is attributed only to a change in the velocity.

It will be wrong to suggest that concept of relativity requires us to give up the idea of absoluteness. If we abandon the concept of absoluteness then we will only have chaos and issues like twin paradox will confront us.

Einstein does not give any causal explanation for relativity. Max Born suggests that concepts arising out of Lorentz transformations are only way of regarding things and cannot be construed as any change in the physical reality and hence are outside the scope of law of causality.

Anything that does not relate to a change in physical reality and is outside the scope of law of causality has to be outside the scope of science.

Phenomenon working behind the length contraction and time dilation is same. That is what gives us real meaning of the invariance of the speed of the light. If length of an object contracts by 10% then time will also run slower by 10%. This is the essence of the invariance of the speed of the light. All we have to do to test this feature of the light is maintain same working temperature for our clock as is the temperature of the medium light is traveling in. Origin of both time dilation as well as length contraction can be traced to same cause. We will identify this cause.

TIME

We cannot imagine a world where no sense of time prevails. A clock, some sort of instrument, to measure the time probably would have been the first machine created by man. For all practical purposes, we need to assume uniform flow of time but science needs precise calculations and we must appreciate brilliance of Einstein for suggesting that time does not flow uniformly.

Einstein managed to give physical dimensions to the concept of time by associating time with a measuring device. But measuring device can only show variation in the recordings without explaining reason for the variation. It is the responsibility of the science to explain the reason for variation in the recordings.

Time is too important a concept for physics to be related to something that is as mundane as a clock is.

Concept of time dilation creates two basic problems – relativistic time has little practical value whereas the traditional idea of time has more practical value, therefore, we cannot abandon the idea that time flows uniformly at all places. Second problem is that relativity of time, as valuable as it is to the science, can result in collapse of several theories, including theory of relativity. Einstein tries to resolve this problem by relying on the invariance of the velocity of the light. Einstein explains that speed of the light in vacuum is independent of any motion of source or the speed of the receiver. This indeed is the case, however, idea of time dilation will mean that measured speed will show variations. Real import of the invariance of speed of light is that speed of light is same at all coordinates in space. It is this feature of the light that I will establish in this theory by explaining that length contracts in the same proportion as the time dilates and hence if operative temperature of the clock is kept at the same level as the object being measured then there will be no variation in the speed and the length. It is prudent to mention here that our definition of meter is now directly related to speed of light and of course on time.

In spite of giving physical dimensions to the concept of time, we cannot physically relate time with the clock. Clocks do not measure flow of time. The real issue is why clocks run faster or slower at different places? Real issue is why does time dilation take place?

Our objective therefore is to find the reasons why motion results in time dilation and length contraction or in other words, what changes does motion cause in physical reality. We also need to determine other conditions that affect flow of time. Let us determine factors, other than motion that affect flow of time.

Microbes and viruses survive for many years in extremely cold temperatures. Does it mean time runs slower in cold conditions? Vegetables kept in the refrigerator survive longer than they do in hotter conditions? Please remember vegetables are also combinations of atoms like Peter and Paul are. Temperature affects even atomic clocks. There will be noticeable difference in the recordings of time between a clock kept in Siberia and a clock kept in Sahara desert. Does it mean that time runs slower in Siberia then it does in Sahara desert? It indeed does run slower in Siberia than in Sahara desert and time does run slower in refrigerator than it does at room temperature.

Now we have two sets of conditions that produce same results. Motion causes time dilation and length contraction and cooling an object also causes time dilation and length contraction. Apparently, two different causes are involved that produce same results.

But there is another important question that must be answered to resolve this mystery. Length contraction is definitely a change in physical reality. We have to determine not only the cause for the change in the physical reality but we also have to find out nature of change in the physical reality. Since everything bigger than an atom is a combination of atoms and anything smaller than an atom is a part of atom therefore any change in the physical reality has to be explained through a change in the structure of an atom.

All clocks, including atomic clocks and biological clocks are combination of atoms therefore let us analyze how atomic clocks record time.

“The second is the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.”

Later on, a correction factor of ± 20 Hz was determined in the frequency.

In simple words atomic clocks measure the number of oscillations of an atom. We now have several questions that we need to answer to get to the root of the issue.

Why do atoms oscillate? Why do atoms oscillate almost uniformly?

At present we do not have a causal explanation given for the length contraction or time dilation nor have we tried to find out the causal explanation for oscillation of atoms.

Oscillation of atoms has to do something with the space that exists between atoms. What is there in this space? The emptiness cannot be and is not absolute.

It has also been noticed that oscillation of atoms increases when heat is transferred to the object and oscillation of atoms reduces when heat is transferred from the object. Thus, atomic clocks run faster or slower when heat is transferred to/from the object.

The electron cloud model has lot of argumentative strengths and meets theoretical requirements and goes well with observed results in experiments.

It is quite possible that size of the cloud of electrons reduces when energy is transferred from the object and hence the space between atoms reduces and hence oscillations reduce.

Various studies have been conducted that show that size of an electron cloud varies and some studies have revealed that orbital processes can slow down at low temperatures.

We also know that electron jump to a higher state when they are subjected to energy transfer and soon emit a photon to get back to their normal state. This means that the size of electron cloud varies but there are two aspects to it. First is that at lower temperature size of the electron cloud reduces from its normal size and then the oscillations continue within this reduced area as atom constantly absorb and emit radiation.

These studies provide clear indications for the reasons of length contraction and time dilation.

Size of the electrons cloud reduces as the heat energy is taken out and hence objects contract. Since oscillations also reduce therefore the time dilation is noticed. Thus, we can directly relate length contraction and time dilation to the transfer of energy from a system.

Higher the temperature, bigger the size of the electron cloud and faster atoms oscillate. Lower the temperature, smaller the size of electron cloud and slower atoms oscillate. This is the simple mechanism through which nature maintains proper time and this is the mechanism through which nature maintains invariance of speed of the light. If we go by theory of relativity then concept of time dilation and invariance of speed of light contradict each other. Invariance of speed of light does not mean constancy of speed of light.

We have seen that objects survive longer in colder atmosphere; we have also seen that generally objects survive longer when they are in motion, and we have seen that objects survive longer when they are placed away from the center of the earth.

If atomic clocks runs slower or faster in a given condition then every clock including biological clock has to run slower or faster in that condition. Thus, frequency of absorption and emission of energy has to have something to do with the rate of energy absorption and emission by atoms.

We know that the oscillations of the atoms increase or decrease depending on the rate of transfer of energy from/to the system. Rate of absorption and emission of energy determines number of oscillations of an atom and hence time dilation is noticed even in atomic clocks. Atoms oscillate due to inflow and outflow of energy.

Now, we need to find out why does motion cause length contraction and time dilation.

First let us examine whether motion results in an increase in the kinetic energy. Mathematics of kinetic energy or Lorentz Transformations does not take periodicity of the motion into account. An object will have an increase in kinetic energy only till it registers a change in velocity after which it can have perpetual motion without registering an increase in kinetic energy. It obviously means that periodicity of motion and hence motion does not result in an increase in the kinetic energy. Mathematics of kinetic energy and Lorentz transformations does not suggest that motion results in an increase in kinetic energy and hence mass.

Moreover, the idea that mass can become infinite is also against first law of thermodynamics. Universe is a closed system which also rules out the possibility of an object having infinite mass at any stage.

Returning to our explanation, we need to ask whether invariance of speed of light will be observed in space also.

Yes, and it simply means that space is a physical reality and it contracts due to presence of the matter and expands due to presence of the energy. This is what distortion of space really means.
RELATIVISTIC MASS

Concept of relativistic mass has more or less been abandoned. In fact, Einstein himself has not used the concept in his theory. It apparently has no practical applications for us because the gain in the mass at speeds currently achievable by us is negligible and hence we may very well ignore this concept and that is what current theories have done.

Concept of relativistic mass is the essence of the relativity. If we discard this concept then we cannot explain relative aspect of the nature. Without relativistic mass there will not be any relativity. Relativistic mass has nothing to do with motion in the sense that motion is not the primary cause of the relativistic mass. Motion itself is effect and not the cause and hence if we relate something with the motion then we will have to explain physics of motion and relate with the concept in question.

Our current understanding is that sum total of potential energy and kinetic energy in a system always remain constant. However, we have seen that there is a problem concerning theory of kinetic energy and the very idea of kinetic energy being the energy that a system has due to motion is faulty.

Out analysis has clearly brought out an extremely important law.

Net energy value of a system always remains constant.

This means that any loss of in energy in a system will be compensated by an equivalent gain in mass and any loss of mass in a system will be compensated by an equivalent gain in the energy. Objects do not exist in universe in the same manner as elements do not exist in earth. Earth cannot be thought of as anything different than its constituents. Similarly, objects are mere manifestations of the universe. If objects are thought to have any existence independent of the universe then laws of conservation will not be valid.

It is not the motion that results in relativistic mass; it is the loss or gain of energy that is directly related to the relativistic mass. If law of conservation of energy is valid then gain in energy by a system must result in loss of mass and loss of energy must be compensated by corresponding increase in the gain in mass. In other words, systems cannot lose mass or energy, they can only exchange mass or energy with other systems including with the universe.

If objects were to gain infinite mass at the speed of the light then it will result in violation of first law of thermodynamics and also in the violation of law of mass-energy conservation. If we say that mass of an object will become infinite due to any factor then we must also explain from where infinite mass will appear.

The limit of mass that an object can have is set by the combined mass defect and hence binding energy of the constituent atoms of the object. When an object is made to absorb more energy than the binding energy of its constituent atoms then it surrenders all its energy either in the form of fire (if right conditions exist) or in the form of an explosion or shock waves. Of course, we may witness these phenomenons together when energy released is enormous.

A word about the Electron Cloud

Concept of Electron cloud is the best approximation we have of what surrounds the nucleus of an atom, however, concept presents a huge problem of describing what exists in the empty space. Moreover, theoretically forming of bond shall not be possible with electron bonds and our explanation that atoms ‘somehow’ manage to come close enough to form a bond is something that shall not be a part of a scientific theory.

We observe that in chemical reactions heat is either given of or is absorbed by the interacting systems. From where does this heat is generated?

Then there is the problem of relating free energy of a system with the structure of an atom. Theoretically, free energy of a system can only be sum total of the free energy of an atom.

Simple solution to this problem is that space around the nucleus has two sets of particles. Atoms use these two particles to interact with other atoms.

This gives the atom a neutral charge and allows it to interact with other atoms. This energy cloud is the free energy of the atom.

As we have seen, system expands (Thermal expansion) due to absorption of heat.

Our current estimates suggest that we only have 4% baryonic matter in the universe. It is highly unlikely that universe started with just 4% baryonic matter. Moreover, luminous matter is constantly getting converted into energy and this energy somehow disappears resulting in loss of energy. It obviously means that quantum mechanical vacuum energy is constantly increasing in the universe and it is this energy that is causing expansion of space as the matter content in the space is constantly being converted to energy.

This simple analysis resolved a number of theoretical problems and application of this theory will resolve all our theoretical problems.

This theory is self-evident; however, it can be confirmed with relatively simple experiments.

Weight of an object will decrease and not increase when it is heated and weight of an object will increase when heat is taken out of the system. This is because matter has more mass than energy and energy has more volume than mass. However, if we keep the temperature of the weight and the temperature of the measure same then no gain will be registered.

Everything in nature can be explained by answering all questions related to matter and energy and the interaction between matter and energy. Detailed discussion on the issue is presented in ‘Philosophy & Science of Nature’. (www.newphysicsworld.com’)

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