Abstract
Abstract In his comment G. Schäfer [1] points out that S. Golden's [2] time-dilation equations (12) and (13) are of kinematic type and that the title of Golden's paper is therefore a misconception. He also states that Golden's treatment of the time-dilation problem is incomplete, since Golden has not considered particle decay in his paper. I should like to present my comment on these two points raised by G. Schäfer. Although Golden describes his equation (13) as "spatially dependent," he says at the beginning of Sect. 4 of his paper that his equations (12) and (13) can be regarded as "either velocity dependent or spatially dependent." But this is not at all the essence of his paper. The essence of his paper is that the two time-dilation equations that he has derived do not imply "any actual dilation-of-time in clocks that may be stationed in the systems." Hence he concludes that Einstein's time-dilation relation is merely a transformation relation and that the motion of the systems does not affect "the intrinsic time-rates of any clocks stationed within them." In order to judge the significance of Golden's paper, it is important to remember that Einstein arrived at the ideas of kinematic time-dilation and length contraction in moving systems not as a result of a rigorous deduction from any mathematical, physical or logical relations, but simply by interpreting in his own way the physical significance of transformation equations for space and time (Lorentz transformation equations) [3]. Ever since the publication of his 1905 article, Einstein's ideas of kinematic length contraction and time dilation
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have