TY - JOUR
T1 - Drawing the line between kinematics and dynamics in special relativity
AU - Janssen, Michel
PY - 2009/1
Y1 - 2009/1
N2 - Special relativity is preferable to those parts of Lorentz's classical ether theory it replaced because it shows that various phenomena that were given a dynamical explanation in Lorentz's theory are actually kinematical. In his book, Physical Relativity, Harvey Brown challenges this orthodox view. I defend it. The phenomena usually discussed in this context in the philosophical literature are length contraction and time dilation. I consider three other phenomena in the same class, each of which played a role in the early reception of special relativity in the physics literature: the Fresnel drag effect, the velocity dependence of electron mass, and the torques on a moving capacitor in the Trouton-Noble experiment. I offer historical sketches of how Lorentz's dynamical explanations of these phenomena came to be replaced by their now standard kinematical explanations. I then take up the philosophical challenge posed by the work of Harvey Brown and Oliver Pooley and clarify how those kinematical explanations work. In the process, I draw attention to the broader importance of the kinematics-dynamics distinction.
AB - Special relativity is preferable to those parts of Lorentz's classical ether theory it replaced because it shows that various phenomena that were given a dynamical explanation in Lorentz's theory are actually kinematical. In his book, Physical Relativity, Harvey Brown challenges this orthodox view. I defend it. The phenomena usually discussed in this context in the philosophical literature are length contraction and time dilation. I consider three other phenomena in the same class, each of which played a role in the early reception of special relativity in the physics literature: the Fresnel drag effect, the velocity dependence of electron mass, and the torques on a moving capacitor in the Trouton-Noble experiment. I offer historical sketches of how Lorentz's dynamical explanations of these phenomena came to be replaced by their now standard kinematical explanations. I then take up the philosophical challenge posed by the work of Harvey Brown and Oliver Pooley and clarify how those kinematical explanations work. In the process, I draw attention to the broader importance of the kinematics-dynamics distinction.
KW - Classical electron models
KW - Inference to the best explanation
KW - Kinematics
KW - Lorentz invariance
KW - Minkowski space-time
KW - Trouton-Noble experiment
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U2 - 10.1016/j.shpsb.2008.06.004
DO - 10.1016/j.shpsb.2008.06.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:60049097258
SN - 1355-2198
VL - 40
SP - 26
EP - 52
JO - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
JF - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B - Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
IS - 1
ER -