Trial&Error
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I've been wondering this about The Theory of Special Relativity:
In Einstein's thought experiment below, he comes to the conclusion "YES" because Galileo's PoR cannot be violated. But why is that? Special Relativity mainly resides on the fact that Galileo's principle is always true, but what evidence is there?
"If a person is sitting in a train travelling at speed "c", and holds up a mirror, will they be able to see their reflection?"
Yes: This would satisfy Galileo's PoR, but from a stationary observers pov, c+c=2c, which is not true. This led to concluding that light is an absolute constant and time and distance are relative.
No: The light will not reach the mirror in order to be reflected back, but then the person will know from their inertial frame of reference that they are travelling at speed "c", violating Galileo's PoR.
Thanks.
In Einstein's thought experiment below, he comes to the conclusion "YES" because Galileo's PoR cannot be violated. But why is that? Special Relativity mainly resides on the fact that Galileo's principle is always true, but what evidence is there?
"If a person is sitting in a train travelling at speed "c", and holds up a mirror, will they be able to see their reflection?"
Yes: This would satisfy Galileo's PoR, but from a stationary observers pov, c+c=2c, which is not true. This led to concluding that light is an absolute constant and time and distance are relative.
No: The light will not reach the mirror in order to be reflected back, but then the person will know from their inertial frame of reference that they are travelling at speed "c", violating Galileo's PoR.
Thanks.