The Einstein Theory of Relativity by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz

Einstein's view was further elaborated by Hermann Minkowski, who demonstrated the geometrical interpretation of all relativistic effects by introducing his concept of four-dimensional spacetime. Įventually, Albert Einstein (1905) was the first to completely remove the ad hoc character from the contraction hypothesis, by demonstrating that this contraction did not require motion through a supposed aether, but could be explained using special relativity, which changed the notions of space, time, and simultaneity. So he had to introduce another ad hoc hypothesis: non-electric binding forces ( Poincaré stresses) that ensure the electron's stability, give a dynamical explanation for length contraction, and thus hide the motion of the stationary aether. Yet it was shown by Henri Poincaré (1905) that electromagnetic forces alone cannot explain the electron's stability.

In 1897 Joseph Larmor developed a model in which all forces are considered to be of electromagnetic origin, and length contraction appeared to be a direct consequence of this model. Īlthough both FitzGerald and Lorentz alluded to the fact that electrostatic fields in motion were deformed ('Heaviside-Ellipsoid' after Oliver Heaviside, who derived this deformation from electromagnetic theory in 1888), it was considered an ad hoc hypothesis, because at this time there was no sufficient reason to assume that intermolecular forces behave the same way as electromagnetic ones.

Length contraction was postulated by George FitzGerald (1889) and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1892) to explain the negative outcome of the Michelson–Morley experiment and to rescue the hypothesis of the stationary aether ( Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction hypothesis).

Main article: History of special relativity

The Einstein Theory of Relativity by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz