Minkowski and Special Relativity: Does His Spacetime Geometry Explain Space Contraction?

Abstract

For over a century Minkowskian spacetime has dominated discussions of space contraction and time dilation within special relativity. Brown and Pooley have called into question both the assumptions of Minkowski and the effects his presumed spacetime has upon objects in motion. But while they reject Minkowski, Brown and Pooley do not fill in the missing causal connection between velocity and space contraction and time dilation. To supply this causal connection between object and observer in relative motion we should be focusing on energy difference rather than velocity difference. When different inertial observers at different relative velocities measure the same rod (or clock), each observer registers a different amount of kinetic energy for the object. Following the consequences of this permits a new understanding of relativistic space contraction and time dilation.