RE: Piqued #2: A Crash Course In Spacetime
I have a comment this time :)
It is slightly misleading to link the notion of spacetime to Einstein only. The work of others of that era, including Minkowski, Lorentz and Poincare to cite three of them, is as important. After all, we are talking about Minkowski's spacetime, Lorentz transformations and Poincare transformations.
To emphasize a little bit, spacetime itself is different from the theory of special relativity, and the latter is Einstein's. Special relativity says that there is a maximal speed and that the laws of physics are identical in inertial reference frames. No spacetime in there :)
The reason why we are calling spacetime Minkowski's spacetime (and not Einstein's spacetime) is that it is Minkowski who presented special relativity in a geometrical manner (thus within spacetime).
Note that I am not saying that what you wrote was wrong, but it is IMO slightly misleading and confused. :)
You are absolutely correct - and I am going to edit it to better clarify.
And please continue to comment on future mistakes, errors and misinterpretations. Part of my aim is to oversimplify for the sake of a broader understanding - but the truth is my own knowledge can be too shallow. It's one thing to simplify something complicated and another entirely to misrepresent due to ignorance. To the extent i approach or accidentally engage in the latter I apologize now and in the future, but will always try to avoid it and fix it when it does.
You don't have to apologize! We are all humans after all. Your positive reaction to my comment is making me happy :)
I am a firm believer that ignorance is an acceptable flaw if you have a willingness to admit your wrong and rectify your ignorance! I've corrected the article to include Lorentz and specifically Minkowskis post special relativity work. Thank you again!
As well as Poincare - this is what happens when you are editing from inside a bar :))
:)
@lemouth - I have a new post which continues this discussion. I wanted to jump to warp engines an wormholes - but as I wrote that I realized I needed to talk about the speed limit first. I would love your opinion given your expertise! https://steemit.com/science/@dber/piqued-3-a-crash-course-towards-the-speed-of-light
Thanks for the pointer to your post! I will try to find some time today or tomorrow and let you know!
Thank you! Regardless of whethrr you upvote it your opinion really does matter to me - no point in my being entertaining if I'm not right!