Abstract
IN an article appearing in the supplement to the present issue of NATURE, Sir Joseph Larmor gives a novel interpretation of the local space and time of relativity theory as the absolute space and time of Newtonian dynamics and astronomy. This is clearly not the place to attempt a detailed critical analysis of this important paper, but it may be permissible to summarise a few of the salient arguments. The correlation of past and present astronomical research, as well as the absolute character of atoms, evidenced by spectroscopic research, wheresoever and whensoever they are found, demand absolute time. The welding of local frames of inertia into one coherent fourfold is the business of relativity; the mutual dynamics of masses existing in each local frame proceeds independently by Newtonian principles. The mathematical development is effected by means of the Principle of Least Action, modified to suit the requirements of electrodynamics and relativity and limited as to form by the necessity of conforming to the postulate of invariance. The requisite formulation of a compound Action-density is first minimised as regards its distribution with reference to variation of structure of the fourfold pseudospace, giving structural differential equations of that fourfold, and then by partial integration the Action is reduced to line integrals along the tracks of the atoms in the fourfold.
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[News and Views]. Nature 119, 535–539 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119535a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119535a0