Greetings all, The following is a short-range schedule of the next few weeks of current projects.
Next Monday, Sept 24, 1.00-2.30 in the phillosophy common room we have John August to talk to us on The Ritzian Alternative to Relativity (see abstract below) Monday Oct 1: Labour Day Holiday Monday Oct 8: Ben Blumsen "Mental Maps" (tentatively) Next week's abstract: Rather than transforming space, time and mass, as does the Special Theory of Relativity, Ritzian theory alters the force between objects, while maintaining fixed space, resulting in the same observable quantity acceleration. Ritzian theory was developed by Walther Ritz as an alternative to Maxwell- Lorentz electrodynamics. While Maxwell's theory posits interactions between charges and fields at empty points in space, Ritz's theory focuses on the forces between charged particles as a function of charge and distance - but importantly also velocity, acceleration and higher order changes in distance. In this way, the interaction between charges is inherently "Relativistic" without any reference to an ether, while the Lorentz transforms must be incorporated into Maxwell's theory for it to achieve the same status. Ritzian theory is able to mirror experimental results of Special Relativity - at least qualitatively, and in some cases quantititatively. However, this difference is the result of the effort which has been directed at Special Relativity compared to Ritzian theory. Nevertheless, Ritzian theory and Special Relativity do have important differences - amongst them velocity addition. As a result, we are able to develop experiments which would distinguish between the different theories, quite apart from any arguments as to the worth of Relativity and whether or not it has problems like paradoxes. Dr. Kristie Miller Australian Research Council Post-doctoral Fellow School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry and The Centre for Time The University of Sydney Sydney, Australia Room 411, A18 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: (work) 02 93569663 Ph: (mobile) 0432 275 286 http://homepage.mac.com/centre.for.time/KristieMiller/Kristie/Home%20Page.html _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list [email protected] List Info: http://lists.arts.usyd.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil NEW LIST ARCHIVE: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
