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The Conventionality of Slow-Transport Synchrony

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Peter A. Bowman
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Extract

The conventionality of distant simultaneity, as maintained by Hans Reichenbach and Adolf Grünbaum, is by now so widely known that it can be stated very briefly. Let us consider two points A and B which are separated from one another in an inertial frame K. For a light signal emitted from A and reflected at B back to A, we compare the time interval for the out-going trip to that for the round trip. This ratio is called ‘epsilon’ (∊). In formulating the special theory of relativity, Einstein effectively took ∊ to be ½; thus, we may use ∊=½ in defining what is now called ‘standard signal synchrony’. Reichenbach views 6 as being restricted only by the causal relations involved in the signaling process.

Type
Contributed Papers: Session III
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1974 , 1974 , pp. 423 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland

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Footnotes

*

This paper derives from section F of Bowman (1972): it summarizes subsection 2 and follows subsection 5 with only minor changes in the exposition

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