iSoul In the beginning is reality.

# Duality as a convention

Is color an absorption phenomena or an emission phenomena? The answer is that it’s both. But absorption works subtractively whereas emission works additively. The question then is whether color is subtractive or additive. Again the answer is that it’s both. Color is a duality.

Does an artist work with subtractive colors or additive colors? Here the answer is one or the other. A painter works with pigments that are subtractive, whereas a glass artist works with stained glass that is additive. Even though absorption and emission are operating in both cases, working with color requires picking one or the other (except for mixed media).

A simultaneity convention can also be a duality. What has been called apparent simultaneity is the convention that the backward light cone is simultaneous. But it is possible to adopt a complementary convention in which the forward light cone is simultaneous (see here). Either of these is something of a combination of Newton’s and Einstein’s physics.

One could recover Newtonian physics by adopting a combination of the backward and forward light cone simultaneity conventions. For an absorption event the backward light cone is simultaneous. For an emission event the forward light cone is simultaneous. This is like half-duplex communication (push to talk, release to listen). Such a duality convention recovers Newtonian physics because it is as if the speed of light is instantaneous in all directions.

# Galileo’s reciprocity

From Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, translated by Stillman Drake (UC Press, 1967):

Salv. Now imagine yourself in a boat with your eyes fixed on point of the sail yard. Do you think that because the boat is moving along briskly, you will have to move your eyes in order to keep your vision always on that point of the sail yard and to follow its motion?

Simp. I am a sure that I should not need to make any change at all; not just as to my vision, but if I had aimed a musket I should never have to move it a hairsbreadth to keep it aimed, no matter how the boat moved.

Salv. And this comes about because the motion the ship confers upon the sail yard, it confers upon you and also upon your eyes, so that you need not move them a bit in order to gaze at the top of the sail yard, which consequently appears motionless to you. [And the rays of vision go from the eye to the sail yard just as if a cord were tied between the two ends of the boat. Now a hundred cords are tied at different fixed points, each of which keeps its place whether the ship moves or remains still.] p.249-250

Galileo is portraying motion as viewed by a human observer. The implication is that the observer in another ship would be observing the same kinds of things. Then two observers in motion with respect to one another who observe one another must face one another. That is, they are positioned opposite one another, effectively each turned 180º from the other.

This is the Galilean Reciprocity Principle, the convention that an observed frame has the opposite orientation of the frame from which it is observed, which ensures that corresponding velocities are equal.

# Relativity of orientation

The Principle of Relativity states that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference (IRF). Since a frame of reference includes an orientation, that is, a convention as to which rectilinear semi-axes are positive (and so which are negative). Since there is no preferred frame of reference, each frame has its own orientation, not the orientation of a particular frame. That means IRF orientations are what is called “body-fixed” orientations.

A frame of reference is called “body-fixed” if it is conceptually attached to a rigid body, such as a vehicle, watercraft, aircraft, or spacecraft. Body-fixed frames are inertial frames if the body to which the frame is affixed is in inertial motion. The body is usually referenced in anthropomorphic terms, such as its left, right, face, or back, although some craft have their own terms, notably, ships with port, starboard, fore, and aft.

Consider the following scenario of cars in five lanes, oriented so that their forward direction is positive, with their unsigned speeds shown relative to the two parked cars in the middle lane:Compare the direction of cars B, C1, C2, and D according to the frames attached to the five cars:

# Velocity reciprocity clarified

This is a follow-on to posts here and here.

It is common to derive the Lorentz transformation assuming velocity reciprocity, which seems to say that if a body at rest in frame of reference is observed from a frame of reference S that travels with relative velocity +v, then a body at rest in frame of reference S will be observed from the frame of reference to be traveling with velocity –v. But that’s not the case.

Consider the typical scenario in which a person standing on the earth (embankment, station) with frame of reference S observes a person sitting in a railway car with frame of reference . Say they are both waving their right hands and their frame of reference follows a right-hand orientation: the positive direction is toward their right.

The first illustration shows the scenario from behind the observer standing on the earth in frame S, who observes the passenger sitting in the train moving to their right with velocity +v. The scenario is typically presented from only this perspective, that of an observer at rest in frame A, even if the perspective of an observer at rest in frame is described.

# Galilean relativity defended

Galilean relativity is a relational theory of motion as a function of time, which leads to the Galilean transformation. Here is a defense of Galilean relativity from two postulates:

(1) The Galilean principle of relativity, which states that the laws of mechanics are invariant under a Galilean transformation.

(2) A convention that rectilinear coordinates for frames of reference follow the right-handed rule: the unit vectors i, j, and k are related as i × j = k.

The Galilean transformation for constant motion on the x axis is x´ = xvt,  and t´ = t. Postulate (2) means if the extended right-hand thumb points to the positive X axis and the extended right-hand first finger points to the positive Y axis, then the right-hand middle finger points orthogonally to the positive Z axis.

The standard configuration for derivations of the Lorentz transformation consists of two inertial frames of reference moving relative to each other at constant velocity, with Cartesian coordinates such that the x and x′ axes are collinear facing the same direction:

In this case the velocity of S´ relative to S is +v and the velocity of S relative to S´ is –v. This is called the principle of velocity reciprocity.

# Two principles of velocity reciprocity

Velocity reciprocity in relativity theory is the relation between two observers, each associated with a frame of reference and moving at different, but constant, velocities. That is, an observer-frame S observes another observer-frame traveling with velocity +v relative to observer-frame S. A velocity reciprocity relation concerns the velocity of S that is observed by . Einstein’s principle of velocity reciprocity states that each velocity is the same magnitude (speed) but is in the opposite direction. That is, the velocity of S observed by  is –v.

Einstein’s principle of velocity reciprocity reads

We postulate that the relation between the coordinates of the two systems is linear. Then the inverse transformation is also linear and the complete non-preference of the one or the other system demands that the transformation shall be identical with the original one, except for a change of v to −v. Ref.

# What Galileo really demonstrated

Galileo Galilei’s inclined plane experiment is described in his work Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences, which I quote from the Dover edition. He speaks (through his character Salviati) of “those sciences where mathematical demonstrations are applied to natural phenomena, as is seen in the case of perspective, astronomy, mechanics, music, and others where the principles, once established by well-chosen experiments, become the foundations of the entire superstructure.” (p.178) This is the ancient method of science that Galileo applied to experiments, establishing the foundation of modern science.

Galileo states his Theorem II, Proposition II as:

The spaces described [i.e., traced] by a body falling from rest with a uniformly accelerated motion are to each other as the squares of the time-intervals employed in traversing these distances. (p.174 or p.142 on the OLL edition)

But it has just been proved that so far as distances traversed are concerned it is precisely the same whether a body falls from rest with a uniform acceleration or whether it falls during an equal time-interval with a constant speed which is one-half the maximum speed attained during the accelerated motion.

Then he describes his experiment:

# Science and Hypothesis excerpts

What follows are excerpts from the book Science and Hypothesis by Henri Poincaré, translated (1905) from La Science et l’hypothèse (1902).

p.xxiii The latter [definitions or conventions] are to be met with especially in mathematics and in the sciences to which it is applied. From them, indeed, the sciences derive their rigour; such conventions are the result of the unrestricted activity of the mind, which in this domain recognises no obstacle. For here the mind may affirm because it lays down its own laws; but let us clearly understand that while these laws are imposed on our science, which otherwise could not exist, they are not imposed on Nature. Are they then arbitrary? No; for if they were, they would not be fertile. Experience leaves us our freedom of choice, but it guides us by helping us to discern the most convenient path to follow.

p.xxv Space is another framework which we impose on the world. Whence are the first principles of geometry derived? Are they imposed on us by logic? Lobatschewsky, by inventing non-Euclidean geometries, has shown that this is not the case. Is space revealed to us by our senses? No; for the space revealed to us by our senses is absolutely different from the space of geometry. Is geometry derived from experience? Careful discussion will give the answer—no! We therefore conclude that the principles of geometry are only conventions; but these conventions are not arbitrary, and if transported into another world (which I shall call the non-Euclidean world, and which I shall endeavour to describe), we shall find ourselves compelled to adopt more of them.

# From racing to relativity

There are three different contexts for 3D duration space, depending on whether base is continuously increasing and, if so, whether there is a conversion factor between length space and duration space:

(A) Base is not continuously increasing. This is the situation of a race or sport in which game time has a definite beginning and ending. For example, in many sports the game lasts a specific time. In a race, the length of the course is set and the time for each contestant ends when they cross the finish line. The average pace of a contestant is their race time divided by the course length.

(B) Base is continuously increasing and there is a general conversion factor between length and duration. This is the situation of the special theory of relativity and some transportation settings in which the conversion pace is the minimum pace (and maximum speed).

In this case, there is an increasing base whether or not a positive time interval is measured. Without a time interval increase the pace is at a minimum (or the speed is a maximum). As the amount of time measured increases, the pace increases (or the speed decreases). Remember that a small amount of time per unit distance is a fast motion, whereas a large amount of time per unit distance is a slow motion.

In this way, the pace increases indefinitely. A pace of infinity would be at rest. A pace of zero is the minimum pace, which in relativity is the speed of light. That is, the speed counts down from the speed of light. This has been misinterpreted as a transformation with superluminal speeds, but because speed decreases as pace increases, object speeds are subluminal.

The dual Lorentz transformation (see here) is

$x'=\lambda&space;(x&space;-&space;ur);\;&space;y'=y;\;&space;z'=z;\;&space;r'=\lambda&space;(r&space;-&space;c^2ur)&space;\;&space;\textup{with}\;&space;\lambda&space;=&space;1/{\sqrt{1-cu}}$

with the understanding that c represents the inverse of the pace of light. The cu in λ is the pace of the object divided by the pace of light, with the base increasing at the conversion rate. As the time of motion increases, the pace increases (and the speed decreases) from that of light toward the pace or speed of rest. So, the square root never becomes negative here.

(C) Base is continuously increasing but there is no general conversion factor between length and duration. This is the situation of general relativity and transportation in general. Conversion of length and duration are local, not global, and the optimal route depends on whether length or duration are optimized.

# Ignatowsky relativity

Vladimir Ignatowski (1875-1942) was a Russian physicist. “In 1910 he was to first who tried to derive the Lorentz transformation by group theory only using the relativity principle (postulate), and without the postulate of the constancy of the speed of light.” K M Browne gave a simplified derivation in the European Journal of Physics, 39 (2018) 025601, from which the key steps are presented below, followed by the corresponding steps for a dual transformation, switching space and time.

This is a derivation of the Ignatowsky transformation in which the axes x, y, and z are taken to represent space axes rx, ry, and rz with time t. The relativity postulate is taken to be: a valid relativistic transformation must be identical in all inertial frames.

Step 1. To find a valid transformation, we take the usual inertial reference frames S and S′ (the latter moving at velocity v in the +x direction relative to the former) for which intra-frame space is Euclidean but inter-frame space (measured from one frame to the other) may be non-Euclidean. Linear equations are necessary so that an event in one frame appears as a single event, without echoes, in the other. Initial conditions are x′ = x = 0 when time t′ = t = 0. We expect the generalised x equation to be the Euclidean equation x′ = xvt with an added multiplier, and if time is the fourth dimension, then the time equation will be similar but with two additional multipliers. The second of these, n, having the dimension of inverse velocity squared, is required to make the equation dimensionally correct. The y and z coordinates are not expected to be affected by x and t. The generalised transformation and its inverse are then