4. R. B. Driscoll, Optimal Special Relativistic Resolution of the Ehrenfest Paradox

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Volume 3: Pages 122-125, 1990

Optimal Special Relativistic Resolution of the Ehrenfest Paradox

R. B. Driscoll 1

1P.O. Box 637, Oakland, California 94604 U.S.A.

Einstein's critique of special relativity equaled or exceeded that of any contemporary. His resolution of the paradox(es) involved was general relativity, which in principle confined special relativity to the infinitesimal fourvolume dx1dx2dx3dx4. The present author treats the paradoxes resulting from application of special relativity to an Ehrenfest disk, using the invariant WW′ − (mv)                         (m′v′), the standard transformation coefficients Ti = xi′/xi for electric charge (1), mass (γ−1), velocityparallel distance (γ), and time (γ), as well as dynamic, electrodynamic and kinematic equations for a particle of the disk dW = C2dm = mω2rdr, qE = −mω2r, and ω = 2π/t = dθ/dt, respectively, in the laboratory frame XYZ together with their homotogs in the disk's corotating frame X′Y′Z′. Transformation coefficients are deduced for angular vetocity (γ−1), velocity of light (1), radial distance (γ), and radial electric field (γ−2); γ = [1 − (ω,r/C)2]−1/2. The rotating space is Euclidean; there is no (Ehrenfest) paradox. The Euclidean, paradox free neoRitzian alternative to special and general relativity is noted, as well as a proposed crucial experiment.

Keywords: Ehrenfest paradox, general relativity, material relativity, special relativity, coordinate transformation coefficient

Received: January 17, 1989; Published Online: December 15, 2008