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Synchronization and Inertial Frames

C. P. Viazminsky
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Abstract

In classical mechanics, a procedure for simultaneous synchronization in all inertial frames is consistent with the Galilean transformation. However, if one attempts to achieve such a synchronization utilizing light signals, he will be facing in the first place the break down of simultaneity, and secondly, a self-contradictory transformation that has the Lorentz transformation, or its confinement to the velocity of light, as the only possible ways that resolve the contradiction. The current work constitutes a smooth transition from traditional to relativistic vision of mechanics, and therefore is quite appealing from pedagogical point of view.

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C. P. Viazminsky. 1999-07-14. Synchronization and Inertial Frames. https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9907020

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