Natural Science Forum / Physics / Relativity / May 2005

OK, I'm getting slightly annoyed.  I want to know the postulates
to Henri's theory, the Ballistic Light Theory (BaT for short).
My guess (and that's all it is) is that they are the following:

[1] Light speed relative to its generator is c.  For purposes of this
   discussion a generator can be construed as either a thermal
   source -- a "hot black body" such as an incandescent light filament
   or a hot piece of metal during forging -- or an electronic state
   transition producing light (such are very commonly used in
   the electronics industry and in fluorescent tubes), and the value
   of c = 3 * 10^8 m/s.  (The actual value as currently measured is
   about 0.069% less.)  Mirrors reflect the light ballistically.
[2] The space metric is the standard Euclidean one.  It does not
   involve the measurement of time.
[3] Gravitation will affect lightspeed as the light falls into the
   Earth.
[4] For all points in space, time is the same value (or
   can be construed to be the same value), regardless
   of the observer's motion.  A corollary is that all
   clocks will remain synchronized regardless of motion,
   if clocks are undamaged (and clocks are damaged by spaceflight).
[5] There is no aether, luminiferous or otherwise.
[6] The "moonshot" experiment is defined here as two spacecraft
   going to the moon, one dropping off a relay and the other
   speeding on with a more or less known velocity, say 10^-4 c.
   The "moonshot" experiment will show results of about 1.3 * 10^-4 s
   difference (as the Moon is about 1.3 light-seconds distant from
   Earth, give or take).
[7] If three observers O, A, and B are such that A moves with velocity
   u relative to O, and B moves with velocity v relative to O, then
   B moves with velocity v-u relative to A.

And then there's the postulate that isn't really about the theory,
but about all experiments pertaining to lightspeed:

[8] All experiments ever performed fully support the BaT.
   (That's right, every last one.  Presumably this includes
   such notables as Hafele & Keating's 1971 results.)

For its part SR/GR theory, which could be construed as
some form of aether theory if one squints a lot (and the
lay press characterization regarding Gravity Probe B does
not help as it talks about "twisting space-time" and such),
has the following postulates (or perhaps derivatives):

[1] Lightspeed is c relative to the generator.  *It also is c relative
   to anyone receiving it.*  Mirrors still reflect the light
   ballistically, however, though a moving or accelerated mirror
   might have a slightly different notion of the energy of what
   it's reflecting than the naive inertial observer might expect.
[2] The time/space metric is the Minkowski metric.  This metric can be
   defined as (x-x0)^2 + (y-y0)^2 + (z-z0)^2 - c^2*(t-t0)^2.
   This metric is constant regardless of motion.  (Not sure
   regarding gravitational tensors here.)
[3] A gravitational field bends the space-time metric (this is why
   it's an aether theory, apparently).  A rotating mass will *twist*
   the space-time metric (this is what Gravity Probe B is testing,
   though the result has already been validated by observation of
   existing satellites).
[4] The Lorentz transform (x_A,y_A,z_A,t_A) = (x_O,y_O,z_O,t_O) LT
   is formulated:

   x_A = (x_O - v * t_O) * g
   y_A = y_O
   z_A = z_O
   t_A = (t_O - v * x_O/c^2) * g

   where g = 1/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2).  Corollaries to this transform
   include shrinking rods (though the exact amount of shrinkage
   depends on the measurement method!), faster-ticking clocks, and
   much confusion. :-)  An important corollary is that a sphere
   expanding at lightspeed from an arbitrary point will, after
   this transform is applied, become a sphere expanding at the
   exact same speed from a slightly different point.
[5] A body that is moving has more mass, as observed by an inertial
   observer, than a body at rest.  E^2 = m^2c^4 + p^2c^2 at all times.
   For light quanta, E^2 = p^2c^2.
[6] Gravitation does not affect lightspeed, although it does affect
   light energy.  It would take me a little work to figure out
   exactly how much, though
   http://users.pandora.be/vdmoortel/dirk/Physics/Acceleration.html
   can assist in that effort.  I would also surmise that a
   lightsource in a gravitationally warped space will still
   expand spherically.
[7] If three observers O, A, and B are such that A moves with velocity
   u relative to O, and B moves with velocity v relative to O, then
   B moves with velocity (v-u)/(1-uv/c^2) relative to A.

and of course

[8] All experiments ever performed fully support SR/GR.

So...have I characterized this issue correctly?