On 04/23/2011 10:14 AM, Mauro Lacy wrote:
> That way, absolute motion will be detected in the direction at which
> the time delta is greater. The light ray will take longer, travelling
> at a fixed velocity, to reach the receiving device, because the travel
> distance in that direction will be greater. Again, because the
> receiving device will be moving away while the light ray is travelling
> towards it.
>
> If this is not the case, we must postulate that the movement of the
> emitting device affects the velocity of the ray of light. And
> therefore c is not constant. Or, we must postulate that the medium is
> moving solidary with the experimental setup. And we have detected
> ether entrainment.
Wrong, and wrong: We don't need to postulate either of those things.
Of course, SR dispenses with the "medium" (which must have some pretty
bizarre physical properties, by the way, if it exists) and leads to a
result where the measured velocity of the ray is affected neither by the
source's motion nor by the receiver's motion. But you're apparently
*assuming* a "medium" and dispensing with SR.
What you may not be aware of is that the final (most mature?) version of
Lorentz's aether theory included physical contraction of objects which
were in motion relative to the aether along the line of motion, and
included a time dilation effect on objects which were in motion relative
to the aether. The result was a set of transformation equations which
were, in fact, identical to the ones used by Einstein (the "Lorentz"
transforms, please note, not the "Einstein" transforms). Consequently,
in the final version of LET ("Lorentz Ether Theory"), motion relative to
the aether is *not* detectable, despite the fact that the aether is not
being "dragged" by bodies moving through it. (Aether drag always seemed
to me to be a rather dicey way to explain anything, for a number of
reasons.)
In short, according to Lorentz's theory, the aether can't be detected
through velocity measurements. There is an "aether frame" but there is
no way to tell how fast you're moving relative to it.
