Giovanelli, Marco
(2018)
Lorentz Contraction vs. Einstein Contraction. Reichenbach and the Philosophical Reception of Miller’s Ether-Drift Experiments.
Proceeding of the Fourth International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime.
pp. 125-155.
Abstract
In 1925 Reichenbach, by reacting to the positive result of Miller’s ether-drift experiments, introduced a distinction between two types of rod contraction in special relativity: a kinematical ‘Einstein contraction,’ which depends on the definition of simultaneity, and a dynamical ‘Lorentz contraction.’ He argued that although both contractions happen to amount to the same Lorentz factor, they are conceptually different. In Reichenbach’s view, only the ‘Lorentz contraction’ is at stake in the Michelson-Morley experiment. The arm of Michelson’s interferometer is shorter than it would have been in classical mechanics in both Einstein and Lorentz’s theories. In both theories, the Lorentz contraction requires an atomistic explanation based on a yet-unknown theory of matter. This paper concludes that Reichenbach’s interpretation of special relativity shares features of the current neo-Lorentzian interpretations.
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