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Jackson and Pargetter's Criterion of Distant Simultaneity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Roberto Torretti
Roberto Torretti*
Affiliation:
University of Puerto Rico
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Extract

Frank Jackson and Robert Pargetter (1977) propose a method for synchronizing clocks at rest at distant points of an inertial system in Euclidean space, which, they claim, (i) does not depend on Einstein's signalling method (Einstein 1923, pp. 27–29) and (ii) provides a basis for denying the conventionality of distant simultaneity. I am afraid, however, that the new method presupposes that the simultaneity of distant events relatively to the chosen inertial system has been already determined by Einstein's or some other method. Jackson and Pargetter describe their method as follows:

Let UA, UB be clocks at A, B, respectively. Let XY be an axis perpendicular to AB, passing through C, the midpoint of AB. Take a rigid straight rod A′B′ with midpoint C′ and length equal to the length AB. Move A′B′ with uniform velocity such that C′ travels along XY towards C, and A′B′ is perpendicular to XY (i.e. parallel to AB); then if the reading … on UA just when A′ coincides with A is the same as the reading … on UB just when B′ coincides with B, clocks UA and UB will be synchronous. (Jackson and Pargetter 1977, p. 468).

Type
Discussion
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , June 1979 , pp. 302 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1979

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References

Einstein, A. (1923), “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper,” in Lorentz et al., Das Relativitätsprinzip, Leipzig: Teubner, pp. 26–50. [Originally published in 1905.]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, F. and Pargetter, R. (1977), “Relative Simultaneity in the Special Relativity,” Philosophy of Science, 44, pp. 464–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, W. (1977), “The Curvature of Physical Space,” in Earman, John S., Glymour, Clark, and Stachel, John (eds.), Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, VIII. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 281–302.Google Scholar