Abstract
In a recent article, De Ritis and Guccioni claimed to give an easy way of falsifying the conventionalist interpretation of the definition of simultaneity of distant events within an inertial system. For a particular closed light path, they derived a necessary condition and claimed that it could be violated by a nonstandard choice of the definition of simultaneity. It is pointed out here that (as shown by many authors) the possibility of a nonstandard definition is implicitly contained in a generally covariant formulation of the special theory of relativity, and it is shown that conditions such as the one they derived are satisfied automatically. The most general position-independent definition of simultaneity is given, and an example of a position- as well as direction-dependent definition is exhibited in an Appendix. A number of objections against the possibility of a nonstandard definition of simultaneity raised by various authors are discussed and are found to lack any physical or mathematical justification.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
De Ritis, R., and Guccioni, S. (1985).Gen. Rel. Grav.,17, 595.
Mittelstaedt, P. (1977).Found. Phys.,7, 573.
Malament, D. (1977).NOÛS,11, 293.
Torretti, R. (1983).Relativity and Geometry (Pergamon Press, Oxford/New York).
Angel, R. B. (1980).Relativity: The Theory and its Philosophy (Pergamon Press, Oxford/New York).
Friedman, M. (1983).Foundations of Space-Time Theories (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey).
Havas, P. (1964).Rev. Mod. Phys.,36, 938.
Havas, P. (1967). InDelaware Seminar in the Foundations of Physics, M. Bunge, Ed. (Springer-Verlag, Berlin/New York), p. 124.
Schouten, J. A. (1918).Verh. Kon. Akad. Amsterdam,12, No. 6.
Hilbert, D. (1917).Gött. Nachr. Math.-Phys. Kl.,53.
Laue, M. (1923).Die Relativitätstheorie, vol. 2, 2nd ed. (F. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig), Section 5 and AnhangII.
Møller, C. (1952).The Theory of Relativity (Oxford University Press, Oxford), Section 88.
Fock, V. (1959).The Theory of Space Time and Gravitation, English translation (Pergamon Press, New York).
Fock, V. (1957).Rev. Mod. Phys.,29, 325.
Weyssenhoff, J. (1937).Bull. Acad. Pol., Ser. A,252.
Reichenbach, H. (1924).Axiomatik der relativistischen Raum-Zeit-Lehre (F. Vieweg and Sohn, Braunschweig). (1969). English translation:Axiomatization of the Theory of Relativity (University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles).
Grünbaum, A. (1955).Amer. J. Phys.,23, 450.
Grünbaum, A. (1963).Philosophical Problems of Space and Time (Alfred A. Knopf, New York); (1973) 2nd ed. (Reidel, Dordrecht/Boston).
Einstein, A. (1920).Relativity, the Special and General Theory (Methuen, London).
Grünbaum, A., and Janis, A. I. (1977).Synthese,34, 281.
Eisenhart, L. P. (1926).Riemannian Geometry (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey).
Yano, K. (1955).The Theory of Lie Derivatives and its Applications (North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam).
Frank, Ph. (1946).Foundations of Physics (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois); (1955) Reprinted inInternational Encyclopedia of Unified Science (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois).
Bunge, M. (1961).Amer. J. Phys.,29, 518.
Bunge, M. (1967).Foundations of Physics (Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York).
Mittelstaedt, P. (1976).Der Zeitbegriff in der Physik (Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim/Wien/Zürich).
Ellis, B., and Bowman, P. (1967).Phil. Sci.,34, 116.
Grünbaum, A. (1969).Phil. Sci.,36, 5, (reprinted in [18, 2nd ed.]).
Salmon, W. C. (1969).Phil. Sci.,36, 44.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Havas, P. Simultaneity, conventialism, general covariance, and the special theory of relativity. Gen Relat Gravit 19, 435–453 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00760649
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00760649