Old Physics Physics Old From the author of Heretical Verities, a study more sharply focused on the sins of relativity theory. Where Thomas E. Phipps, Jr. physicists see transcendent beauty, Phipps finds institu- tionalized ugliness. Where field theorists have eyes only for the glitter of Maxwell and Einstein, he commends the subtler attractions of the Cinderella of modern elec- for New tromagnetic theory, Heinrich Hertz. From the Foreword “...the common experience upon reading a scientific text is to be confronted by a finished article—that is, by a text from which all sense of intellectual journeying has been exorcised, cleansed, deleted... But Phipps refutes this puritanical model; he is renaissance man—the man who glories in the splendour of the written word and its capacity to illuminate the obscure, and to decorate the plain. And so the experience of reading Phippsian scientific prose is not unlike that of reading a Thomas good detective novel … ...no longer is electrodynamics claimed as the portal to a shining new world, quite different from the old; instead, it sits firmly and squarely as an integral part of that old world. And, almost by magic—yet not really—Phipps shows us that, E. in its neo-Hertzian reincarnation, electromagnetism is already electrodynamics; there is no need to postulate force laws additional to those inherent in the basic Phipps, definitions of the field quantities ... read, marvel and enjoy!” About the Author Thomas E. Phipps, Jr., was born in Champaign, IL (1925) and Jr. educated at Harvard, AB (1945), MS (1948), PhD (1951). His Old Physics doctorate was in nuclear physics for thesis work under Norman Ramsey. In 1945-46 he joined the wartime Operations Research Group of the Navy Department in Washington, D.C. In later years he was employed by Navy laboratories in research and administrative capacities. On retirement in 1980, he returned to physics and for New undertook both theoretical studies and various small-scale experiments described in his book Heretical Verities. He is a member of Sigma Xi and Phi Beta Kappa, and a past member of the –a worldview alternative to 0-9732911-4-1 Apeiron Operations Research Society of America and the American Physical Society. He has about 40 publications in established (refereed) physics Einstein’s relativity theory journals and more than twice that number in dissident physics journals. Foreword by D.F. Roscoe ,!7IA9H3-cjbbei! Old Physics for New: a worldview alternative to Einstein’s relativity theory Thomas E. Phipps, Jr. Apeiron Montreal Published by C. Roy Keys Inc. 4405, rue St-Dominique Montreal, Quebec H2W 2B2 Canada http://redshift.vif.com © C. Roy Keys Inc. 2006 First Published 2006 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Phipps, Thomas E., 1925- Old physics for new : a worldview alternative to Einstein's relativity theory / Thomas E. Phipps. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-9732911-4-1 1. Special relativity (Physics). 2. Electromagnetic theory. I. Title. QC173.585.P52 2006 530.11 C2006-905979-9 Appendix quoted from: A Threefold Cord: Philosophy, Science, Relig- ion, Viscount Samuel and Herbert Dingle, © 1942 George Allen and Unwin. Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Books UK. Front cover: A blue Fu dog (at Allerton Park, near Monticello, Illinois), symbolizing Nature or Old Physics, regards with dismay the glitter- ing New Physics of the “black Garuda” (a mask crafted by Balinese artist Nyoman Setiawan), one of various incarnations of Vishnu, in the present context seen as the incarnation of Albert Einstein’s special rela- tivity theory. Table of Contents Foreword..............................................................................................................i Author’s Preface ...............................................................................................vii Chapter 1 What’s Wrong with Maxwell’s Equations? .......................................................1 1.1 Problems of first-order description ........................................................1 1.2 The under-parameterization of Maxwell’s equations....................................................................................................9 1.3 The problem about Faraday’s observations: d/dt................................10 1.4 Justification for a Hertzian form of Faraday’s law .............................13 1.5 Other problems of Maxwell’s equations..............................................15 1.6 Chapter summary ...................................................................................16 Chapter 2 What to Do About It … (the Hertzian Alternative).......................................17 2.1 First-order invariant field equations ....................................................17 2.2 History: Why did Hertz fail?.................................................................23 2.3 Invariance vs. covariance: The physics of it.........................................26 2.4 Invariance or covariance: Which is physics?.......................................28 2.5 Hertzian wave equation.........................................................................30 2.6 Potier’s principle .....................................................................................34 2.7 Sagnac effect and ring laser ...................................................................37 2.8 A bit of GPS evidence.............................................................................42 2.9 Chapter summary ...................................................................................43 Chapter 3 Higher-order Electrodynamics … (the neo-Hertzian Alternative)..................45 3.1 The higher-order kinematic invariants ................................................45 3.2 Neo-Hertzian field equations................................................................53 3.3 Neo-Hertzian wave equation ................................................................57 3.4 Phase invariance......................................................................................64 3.5 Doppler effect..........................................................................................65 3.6 Chapter summary ...................................................................................66 Chapter 4 Stellar Aberration .............................................................................................69 4.1 Appreciation of the phenomenon.........................................................69 4.2 SA according to SRT ...............................................................................71 4.3 SA according to neo-Hertzian theory...................................................77 4.4 SRT’s unrecognized conceptual difficulties with SA.....................................................................................................84 4.5 Einstein’s state of mind: a speculation .................................................86 4.6 A rebuttal .................................................................................................87 4.7 Another “first test” failure of dσ: the rigid body................................89 4.8 Newtonian point particle mechanics....................................................93 4.9 Chapter summary ...................................................................................95 Chapter 5 Electrodynamic Force Laws ..............................................................................99 5.1 Electromagnetic force in SRT.................................................................99 5.2 Neo-Hertzian force law........................................................................101 5.3 Evidence of the Marinov motor ..........................................................108 5.4 Other electrodynamic force laws ........................................................109 5.5 Sick of field theory? … (the Weber alternative) ................................114 5.6 Chapter Summary.................................................................................118 Chapter 6 Clock Rate Asymmetry ...................................................................................123 6.1 Distant simultaneity, acausality..........................................................123 6.2 Einstein’s train on a different track.....................................................127 6.3 Clock slowing: actual or symmetrical? (The twin paradox) ...............................................................................132 6.4 GPS evidence for clock rate asymmetry.............................................139 6.5 Clock rates, free-falling vs. supported in a gravity field ....................................................................................147 6.6 Platonic time and simultaneity ...........................................................150 6.7 Length Invariance .................................................................................152 6.8 Clock rate as an energy state function................................................155 6.9 Reversible work.....................................................................................159 6.10 Atomic clocks: prospects for their improvement.............................160 6.11 Chapter summary ................................................................................161 Chapter 7 Collective Time ...............................................................................................165 7.1 Principles governing proper time.......................................................165