Abstract
I. BREAKDOWN OF OLDER THEORIES.—The older electromagnetic theory of moving bodies did not agree with experiment, or even with itself. For example, the theory of a magnet moving in a straight line towards a fixed conductor gave results quite different from those of the theory of a conductor moving in a straight line with the same velocity towards a fixed magnet. Yet experiment showed that the results should be the same, depending only on the relative velocity. Again, the asther was assumed to be at the same time quite unaffected by the earth's motion (to explain aberration), partly affected (to explain Fizeau's water-tube experiment), and entirely affected (to explain the experiments of Michelson and Morley, Lodge, Rowland, Rayleigh and Brace, Trouton and Noble, and others).
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PIAGGIO, H. Summary of the Theory of Relativity. Nature 110, 432–434 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/110432a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/110432a0