2008•Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering SciencesRequires access

Derivation of special relativity from Maxwell and Newton

David J. Dunstan

Abstract

Special relativity derives directly from the principle of relativity and from Newton's laws of motion with a single undetermined parameter, which is found from Faraday's and Ampère's experimental work and from Maxwell's own introduction of the displacement current to be the -c(-2) term in the Lorentz transformations. The axiom of the constancy of the speed of light is quite unnecessary. The behaviour and the mechanism of the propagation of light are not at the foundations of special relativity.

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Key concepts: Four-force, Theory of relativity, Test theories of special relativity, Special relativity, Principle of relativity, Lorentz transformation, Classical mechanics, Physics