Desedimentation of Minkowski Spacetime

Abstract

Cosgrove here applies the historical findings of the previous two chapters to the concept of Minkowski spacetime. While the Minkowski spacetime interval is often called a “generalization” of the Pythagorean Theorem, Einstein himself always more correctly referred to a formal analogy between the four-dimensional spacetime continuum and the three-dimensional continuum of Euclidean space. Thus the physical reality of Minkowski spacetime depends on whether the squared terms in the expression c2dt2 − dx2 designate actual geometrical quantities. Cosgrove concludes that the aforementioned algebraic terms do not designate geometrical quantities but rather represent symbolically abbreviated compound ratios. The Minkowski spacetime interval and all four-vectors constructed upon it are thereby revealed as symbolic artifacts.