Recent content by yuedongxiao

It's the other way around. We don't know there was a max speed. So the starting point was just an extension of the Galiliean transformation. Then as I showed, we actually have two choices. In one choice, the space-time transformation is symmetric. In such a universe, we find there is a max...

No. When you transform a physical LENGTH=L in one reference to another, the transformation does not change with respect to location and time.

Once you derived the energy-mass relation for a non-zero rest mass, you realize that any particle with zero rest mass at v<1 would have zero energy. Therefore, an energetic object with zero rest mass must be moving at v=1.

The speed of light seems to be an experimental question.

As I read it, Professor Shankar's derivation in your link seems to use the light speed in nailing down \gamma. I think my derivation was simpler and cleaner. I intended to show it to kids who don't know much about "speed of light". From my derivation, one cannot exceed the unit speed if one...

In A at t_A, the position of B's origin is well defined, and the distance from B's origin to the x_A is some physical length. Imagine A puts a ruler along the x, |(x_A - vt_A)|=L is some length of a segment of the ruler in A. Now, consider how the physical length will transform. It should not...

If you read the link to the full paper in the starting post, you will see a section on how to determine the unit speed. The procedure is to derive relativistic dynamics, and from there we will a particle with 0 rest mass will have to move at the unit speed. Whether a photon has a zero mass is a...

I don't think my premises are more complicated. There was no assumptions on speed of light and no assumptions on dimensionality. So, Euclid could have derived those equations (the LT) 2000 years ago if he made the leap in treating space and time alike.

Thank you for the comment. My starting point in fact did not assume any empirical knowledge, but merely asks the question, what if NATURE treats time and space in the same way in the transformation between reference frames? We humans perceive space and time. Does NATURE make the distinction in...

I was trying to write some "popular science" story on special relativity and explain it to kids a couple of days ago, but find the postulate of speed of light is too hard to be accepted as a fact. So I started working from the Galilean transformation, and realized that Lorentz transformation is...