6. I. McCausland, On the Consistency or Inconsistency of Special Relativity

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Volume 12: Pages 438-445, 1999

On the Consistency or Inconsistency of Special Relativity

I. McCausland

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G4 Canada

It is pointed out that the consistency of the mathematical structure of special relativity is not sufficient for the consistency of the whole theory. The logical properties of consistent and inconsistent theories are discussed. Einstein's argument for the relativity of synchronization is criticized and rejected. It is concluded that either the theory is inconsistent or Einstein's theorem about the time interval shown by a round‐trip clock does not follow from the theory.

Keywords: special relativity, consistency and inconsistency, synchronization

Received: October 6, 1998; Published online: December 15, 2008