Rap said:
@Dragon27
M and M' will not experience simultaneous chimes.
This
could be true only if referred to the evaluation of one's and other's detector: M and M' both say their
own detector receive two light signals simultaneously, coming from
their own mirrors, provided they hear two simultaneous chimes (and see two simultaneous LED blinkings into their own detector hold in their hand). But if B watches the detector of B' faraway (or if B' looks at the detector of B), he
could even
expect two LED blinks arriving at different times from there,
because he imagines a light beam as traveling from a mirror moving forward and another beam traveling from an escaping mirror; thus he presumes those beams will reach the other observer's detector in different times. But this nice fable is only based on the
assumption that light is travelling and that that light is "one and the same thing-ball" for everybody. The cruel reality is that we have never seen a beam of light
travelling. We can see, at most, a light beam standing in between a distance, if we put some smoke there. So, everything can "travel" but light, is my tenet. The other reality is that the light of both detectors will blink simultaneously from the pov of each owner. And this simultaneous blinks will correspond to another event-signal which will be perceived by the
other observer faraway. No matter of time lapse and distance, a double simultaneous blink event in the hands of B' is a
fact, independently from the original scratch and spark. Whatever it will reach B, that event will conserve and vehicle the image of a far detector in which two LEDs are simultaneously blinking. So both observers will observe a double simultaneous chime and LED light blink in their own detector, and also a double simultaneous blink (obviously retarded) into the far observer's detector.
Rap said:
@Dragon27Lets say M is motionless with respect to the detectors, M' is not. Then M will experience simultaneous chimes, M' will not. M' will not, because to him, the detectors are moving. One detector is moving towards where the spark happened, the other is moving away, and so, to him, the distances the two light beams have to travel are different, and since the speed of light is constant, the chimes cannot be simultaneous.
This is manifestly wrong. No observer is motionless. In our Universe doesn't exist something like "rest". Everything is in
relative motion respect to a myriad of other things. In this case M and M' are both in motion one respect to the other, because of the perfect symmetrical setting. The pitfall is even more evident because you are considering the spark and the spark-event place as standing there, somewhere, maybe in front of M. If you want imagine a spatial location for that spark-event with any short-time duration, then you'd better imagine that place is - at any time - exactly midway between M and M'. In this case M and M' are both in motion respect to the light source at same (opposite) speed. This will reestablish a clear image of the symmetry. And you maybe want to put there a third observer too: the one sitting at the spark-place, i.e. the POV of M°. Like M and M', M° has two mirrors and a chime-LED detector pointed towards the two mirrors equidistant in opposite directions. He will observe two chimes and LED light emissions from his detector in his hands, and, after a short time lapse, M° sees two double simultaneous LED blinks coming from M and M', from opposite directions, but simultaneously.
If you think to light as something connecting events in different points of
spacetime, instead of something "travelling in space", you could start re-thinking and re-writing all concepts. I am not able to do that at this moment, but I have no doubts on the results and implications of this thought experiment of mine.
I hope somebody more expert than me and open minded would take in account these analyses of the issue.
Many years ago I read PW Bridgman didn't like to think of light as some
thing travelling. Now, I know why, or I presume to know why.