A CONSISTENT THEORY

As we gain experience with Einstein’s special theory of relativity, we begin to see a consistent pattern emerge. We are beginning to see that there is general agreement on what happens, even if different observers have different opinions as to how it happens. A good example is the Mt. Washington experiment observing muons traveling from the top of Mt. Washington to sea level. Everyone agrees that the muons made it. The muons are actually seen down at sea level. How they made it is where we get the differing points of view. We say that they made it because their clocks ran slow. They say they made it because the mountain was short. Time dilation is used from one point of view, the Lorentz contraction from another.
Do we have a complete, consistent theory now? In any new situation will we always agree on the predicted outcome of an experiment, even if the explanations of the outcome differ? Or are there some new effects, in addition to time dilation and the Lorentz contraction, that we will have to take into account?
The answer is that there is one more effect, called the lack of simultaneity which is a consequence of Einstein’s theory. When we take into account this lack of simultaneity as well as time dilation and the Lorentz contraction, we get a completely consistent theory. Everyone will agree on the predicted outcome of any experiment involving uniform motion. No other new effects are needed to explain inconsistencies.
The lack of simultaneity turns out to be the biggest effect of special relativity, it involves two factors of  . But in this case the formulas are not as important as becoming familiar with some of the striking consequences. We will find ourselves dealing with problems such as whether we can get answers to questions that have not yet been asked, or whether gravity can crush matter out of existence. Strangely enough, these problems are related.