Time changes in gravity field.

David

The problem seems to be that very few people know about Einstein’s 1918 “patch” to his 1905 theory. So the rumor has gone around for years that only “relative motion” causes the “time dilation”. But that’s just not true.

There are two theories at work in the 1905 paper, the first part, the Kinematical part, which is Einstein’s, and the second part, the Electrodynamical part, which is from Lorentz relativity theory.

Ok, it was Lorentz who first said that a clock could slow down DUE TO MOTION THROUGH FIELDS. These can be the electric field, the magnetic field, or the gravitational field. This puts an actual physical “force” on the clocks, especially atomic clocks, ie “atoms”.

In 1911, Einstein deduced that atomic clocks could slow down inside a gravitational field, and due to motion related acceleration, and perhaps also due to motion through a strong gravitational field.

So, the “SR” part of the Hafele-Keating flying clocks experiment was NOT due to “relative motion”, it was due to the motion of the clocks through the earth’s field(s), probably the gravitational field. If it was just due to “relative motion”, the Eastbound and Westbound clocks would have both lost time, but the Westbound clocks actually gained a lot of time. What this probably means is, their speed through the earth’s radiating gravitational field was much slower than that of the Eastbound clocks.

Since it is believed that the earth “radiates” its gravitational field at about the speed of light, as the earth turns, rotates, it rotates inside its own gravitational field. When a mountain at the equator moves about 1/4 mile, at about 1,000 mph, the “radiated gravitational field” of that mountain has moved out into space about 186,000 miles.

This is, assuming all these theories are correct.

Anyway, keep this in mind: Lorentz theory = atomic clock slow down due to motion through fields, Einstein GR = atomic clock slow down due to strong gravitational field and motion-acceleration.

But NO clock slow down due only to “relative motion”. That is the error in the 1905 theory that Einstein corrected in 1918.

Now that his 1918 paper is available again, all students will be taught this information within the next 50 years. Yours will be one of the few generations that was incorrectly taught that “relative motion” alone could cause clocks to slow down.

yogi

Hi David

I am aware of the proposition that clocks actually slow down relative to motion wrt space (you refer to the substantive stuff as fields - but the idea is the same) And as it turns out, one can explain most relativistic effects in terms of actual clock slowing as per Lorentz.
But most relativistic phenomena can also be explained using traditional SR (totally kinematic). SR struggles with the triplet problem which all SR adherents claim to be non paradoxical.. that is, so they say, "if you really understand SR" - but the reasoning is convoluted, and always leaves me with the feeling that resolution is postulated rather than derived - on the other hand, Lorentz Ether requires actual physical contraction - which to my way of thinking creates serious conceptual problems - and it requires adherence to a different belief system which is for me just as hard to accept.

Anyway - I am still not convinced from your post that Einstein ever went so far as to endorse a physical mechanism to explain Gravitational time dilation - as I read his works and the many interpretations thereof, I cannot find a foundational underpinning for a physical cause in the Special or General theory per se.

I Assume you are familiar with the various spatial "inflow" theories.
They do a good job of tying gravitational time dilation to the effective escape velocity (the rate of inflow determines the escape velocity and this rate corresponds to the time dilation due to this velocity vis a vis SR). Tom Martin has published several papers dealing with experiments that - if performed, will either validate GR and falsify Spatial inflow - or vice versa.

Regards