ASTRO 142 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Hendrik Lorentz, Inertial Frame Of Reference, Lorentz Transformation
Document Summary
Some underpinnings of special relativity are the results gained by people before einstein, such as. Maxwell"s equations, michelson morley"s experiment, the fitzgerald contraction hypothesis, Ernst mach"s proposal of the absence of ether, and lorentz"s transformation. Hendrik lorentz took up the idea of the fitzgerald contraction and demonstrated that the. Maxwell equations were invariant under a new kind of transformation law that makes use of this contraction. The new law, now known as the lorentz transformation, contains a dilation, or slowing, of time, in addition to the length contraction proposed by fitzgerald. The lorentz transformation, with its dilation of time and contraction of space, stands in direct opposition to something that was still regarded as more fundamental than maxwell"s equations: newton"s absolute time and space. There is no special frame of reference that is at rest with respect to some absolute space.
