Exploring the Internal Logic of Galileo’s Principle of Relativity

Summary

In this chapter we have examined the physical meaning of Galileo’s principle of relativity and arrived at the conclusion that the null result of Galileo’s experiments implies that absolute uniform motion does not exist. Our analysis showed that the non-existence of absolute uniform motion entails the existence of more three-dimensional spaces which in turn is possible only in a four-dimensional world. The results of this analysis demonstrate that the four-dimensional formulation of special relativity is logically contained in Galileo’s principle of relativity.