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Conventionality of Simultaneity and Reality

Petkov, Vesselin (2008) Conventionality of Simultaneity and Reality. [Preprint]

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Abstract

An important epistemological lesson can be learned from the impossibility to determine the one-way velocity of light and the immediate implication that simultaneity is conventional. The vicious circle -- to determine whether two distant events are simultaneous we need to know the one-way velocity of light between them, but to determine the one-way velocity of light we need to know that the two events are simultaneous -- is an indication of the need for a profound change of our view on reality.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
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Petkov, Vesselin
Additional Information: To appear in: D. Dieks (ed.), The Ontology of Spacetime II (Elsevier, Amsterdam 2008); "Philosophy and Foundations of Physics" Series, Volume 4, pp. 175-185.
Keywords: One-way velocity of light, conventionality of simultaneity, spacetime, dimensionality of the world
Subjects: General Issues > Philosophers of Science
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Depositing User: Vesselin Petkov
Date Deposited: 14 Apr 2008
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:16
Item ID: 3986
Subjects: General Issues > Philosophers of Science
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Date: August 2008
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/3986

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