User:DanielBurnstein

Introduction
A little more than a hundred years ago, physicists believed that light needed a medium to propagate through, the way sound waves need air (or water) for propagation or the waves at the surface of a body of water need, well, waves. It seemed to make sense that light, if it propagated as a wave (it behaved like one), then light needed a medium. The hypothetical medium for light was called the luminiferous aether or ether and was attributed some extraordinary properties.

But the ether, also concluded physicists, should be detectable, if not directly then indirectly. This was the purpose of the famous Michelson-Morley experiment, which was to detect the ether indirectly from its effect on the speed of light.

The Michelson-Morley experiment attempted to detect the ether drift - which the theory predicted would affect the speed of light propagation. But after much effort, no significant variations were found which could only mean one thing. The ether did not exist.

But more interesting is the conclusion that the speed of light was independent of its frame of reference. Ordinarily, speeds are additive. For example, if you’re riding a bicycle on a straight path and going at 10 kilometres per hour and someone is on the same path, riding a bicycle towards you at a speed of 8 kilometres per hour, than you approach one another at a speed of 10km/hr + 8km/hr = 18 kilometres/hr.

Similarly, if you are walking at a speed of 2km/hr aboard a train in the same direction as the train which is going at 100km/hr, the total distance you will actually cover during a time equal to T is distance=T*2km/hr+ T*100km/hr or distance=T*(100+2)km/hr=T*102km/hr

As you see, speed will add up (or subtract if you are walking in a direction opposite to that of the train. But in the case of light, things don’t add up.

If the speed of light is L km/hr and you have a beam of light moving in the same train as above and in the same direction then, it would seem that

distance=T*(L+100)km/hr=T*Lkm/hr

If the beam of light were moving in a direction opposite to that of the train then

distance=T*(L-100)km/hr=T*Lkm/hr

Furthermore, if the train itself was moving at the speed of light, we would get distance=T*(L+L)km/hr=T*Lkm/hr

Now, as the reader can see, the only way that these equations can hold is if T, time, is not a constant but a function that becomes proportionally smaller at the total speed of whatever we measure increases. In others words, time slows down as the speed of the train approaches the speed of light.

Applying simple math we find that

T*(L+d)km/hr=T*Lkm/hr

which when we simplify gives

T=L/(L+d)

So T, time, is a function of L and d which depend on the speed of light and the speed of the train or whatever vehicle light travels onto.

Albert Einstein arrived at a similar conclusion and from it developed his theory of special relativity which two basic axioms were the constancy of the speed of light and the relativity of time.

But special relativity, as all physics theories up to present time, relies on two notions: that of space and that of time.

Space allowing the measurement of distances, surfaces and volumes and time, the comparison of observed events to cyclic and periodic systems (clocks).

These two notions have part of human culture for so long, are so obvious, that they are taken as being fundamental aspects of physical reality. Everyone, including scientists, use those notions daily without anything more than what amounts to philosophical definitions.

Let us consider the following definitions of space and time, both taken from Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com).

“Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of the boundless four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. In mathematics one examines 'spaces' with different numbers of dimensions and with different underlying structures. The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe although disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework.”

“Time is an essential part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects. Time has been a major subject of religion, philosophy, and science, but defining it in a non-controversial manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars.”

The above definitions exemplify much of the problems we have today with theoretical science. Space is considered boundless and continuous. As for time, it is assumed to be a property of physical reality. In the following chapters, we will examine the notions of space and time so as to provide new objective definitions such that, in the particular case of space, is the foundation of Quantum-Geometry Dynamics.