Research Article

J Sci Discov (2019); 3(2):jsd19010; DOI:10.24262/jsd.3.2.19010; 
Received September 15th, 2019, Revised October18th, 2019, Accepted October 26th, 2019, Published November 01st, 2019.

The Newton-Voigt Space-time Transformation

Robert J. Buenker¹

¹Fachbereich C-Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Gaussstr. 20, D-42097 Wuppertal, Germany

* Correspondence: Robert J. Buenker, Fachbereich C-Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Gaussstr. 20, D-42097 Wuppertal, Germany. E-mail: rjbuenker@gmail.com

The cornerstone of the Special Theory of Relativity (STR) is the Lorentz transformation (LT). Its forerunner was given by W. Voigt in 1887 shortly after the publication of the Michelson-Morley interferometer experiment. It was based on his conjecture that the classical (Galilean) space-time transformation needed to be amended so that it would be consistent with experimental findings that indicate that the speed of light in free space is independent of the state of motion of the light source. In order to accomplish this objective, Voigt introduced for the first time the concept of space-time mixing, which has since become a doctrine of theoretical physicists. However, the Voigt transformation (VT) proved to be deficient because of its inability to adhere to the prescriptions of Galileo’s Relativity Principle (RP).

A decade later, Larmor modified the VT to remove this inconsistency and the resulting set of equations has since become known as the LT. Although the LT satisfies both the RP and the light-speed constancy requirement, which have subsequently been referred to as Einstein’s two postulates of relativity, it nonetheless also has a clear deficiency itself since it leads directly to two predictions that are mutually exclusive of one another, namely proportional time dilation and remote non-simultaneity. It has previously gone unnoticed by the physics community that an axiom of elementary algebra needs to be ignored in order to justify the co-existence of both of the above effects.

The Newton-Voigt transformation (NVT) also satisfies both of Einstein’s postulates, but avoids any conflict between clock-rate predictions. It does so by invoking Newtonian Simultaneity, whereby the rates of any two inertial clocks, which necessarily have constant but different rates, must always be strictly proportional to one another as long as no unbalanced external force is applied to them. As a consequence, the apparent necessity of the mixing of space and time that Voigt foresaw is eliminated. Furthermore, the NVT is seen to be consistent with an exclusively objective view of the measurement process, something that is ruled out by both the VT and the LT.

Keywords: space-time transformation, Lorentz transformation (LT), Voigt transformation (VT), Newton-Voigt transformation (NVT).

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