Relativity is insane. Einstein literally rewrote the formula for “add two velocities together”. You know, like 20 km/s + 20 km/s, WHICH YOU WOULD THINK just turns into 40km/s, but it’s actually ever so slightly less.
It goes really deep in terms of what it affects in physics.
> In physics, analogous transformations have been introduced by Voigt (1887) related to an incompressible medium, and by Heaviside (1888), Thomson (1889), Searle (1896) and Lorentz (1892, 1895) who analyzed Maxwell's equations. They were completed by Larmor (1897, 1900) and Lorentz (1899, 1904), and brought into their modern form by Poincaré (1905) who gave the transformation the name of Lorentz.[3] Eventually, Einstein (1905) showed in his development of special relativity that the transformations follow from the principle of relativity and constant light speed alone by modifying the traditional concepts of space and time, without requiring a mechanical aether in contradistinction to Lorentz and Poincaré.[4] Minkowski (1907–1908) used them to argue that space and time are inseparably connected as spacetime.
Einstein did great work, no doubt. But his work was still a product of his time, and was 'in the air'. If it hadn't been for Einstein, other people would have made similar discoveries soon. They were already in the process, after all.
However I suspect, it would have probably taken several great scientists and a few more years.
But that’s kind of the point with Einstein. Work was going towards the aether and in the wrong direction. It was a leap rather than an incremental or logical next step to come up with relativity.
>Eventually, Einstein (1905) showed in his development of special relativity that the transformations follow from the principle of relativity
But that for me is really the point. Even if Lorentz had the math right, he didn't have the explanation, which Einstein delivered. And that's the valuable part in science. Having a model that explains the world better than previous models.
General relativity is insane and was definitely a bit ahead of its time. It took decades before we could test many of the implications.
Special relativity was being worked on by several people contemporaneously. The fact that it is called "Lorentz Contraction" should tell you that other people were working on it.
eru|2 years ago
No, he didn't. There's a reason we are talking about the Lorentz transformation, not the Einstein transformation.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lorentz_transformat...
> In physics, analogous transformations have been introduced by Voigt (1887) related to an incompressible medium, and by Heaviside (1888), Thomson (1889), Searle (1896) and Lorentz (1892, 1895) who analyzed Maxwell's equations. They were completed by Larmor (1897, 1900) and Lorentz (1899, 1904), and brought into their modern form by Poincaré (1905) who gave the transformation the name of Lorentz.[3] Eventually, Einstein (1905) showed in his development of special relativity that the transformations follow from the principle of relativity and constant light speed alone by modifying the traditional concepts of space and time, without requiring a mechanical aether in contradistinction to Lorentz and Poincaré.[4] Minkowski (1907–1908) used them to argue that space and time are inseparably connected as spacetime.
Einstein did great work, no doubt. But his work was still a product of his time, and was 'in the air'. If it hadn't been for Einstein, other people would have made similar discoveries soon. They were already in the process, after all.
However I suspect, it would have probably taken several great scientists and a few more years.
heyoni|2 years ago
carlmr|2 years ago
But that for me is really the point. Even if Lorentz had the math right, he didn't have the explanation, which Einstein delivered. And that's the valuable part in science. Having a model that explains the world better than previous models.
bsder|2 years ago
Special relativity was being worked on by several people contemporaneously. The fact that it is called "Lorentz Contraction" should tell you that other people were working on it.