The whole issue is this picture accordingly to the reality?
The simple answer is no.
When you observe the universe, our galaxy, or individual stars, you will realize that many stars are binary systems and that trajectories are not in the shape of a cirlce but an ellipse. This means the masses of the two stars are different. In fact I should have written the calculted masses using Newton's Law.
But that is also not enough. A detailed description is required how this calcultion is performed, such that others can repeat this experiment. In this case the calculation depends on two type of parameters: The positions of the two stars at a sequence of equally time spaced observations and the time of this observations.
One strategy to measure the positions is to define a 3D grid, consisting of 3 sets of equally spaced rods in the x,y and z direction. How smaller the rods, how finer the grid, how more accurate the positions can be measured. At the cross points of the rods there is a clock. The same rule applies: How finer the grid, how more accurate the time can be mesured. Using these observations and Newton's Law the masses can be measured.
But does this calculation explain why the two stars rotate around each other? What the calculation demonstrates that Newton's Law can be used to predict the behavior of both stars in the future and because Newton's Law involves forces, that forces are the basics of our understanding of the behavior of stellar systems. What is important that these forces are the same and when that is the case the trajectories are stable.
In reality this is not true, because the masses of both stars can change and as a result the trajectories will deviate from the past and specific will deviate from the predicted positions. One reason of this change can be the merging in due time, of each star with smaller objects. To solve that also these smaller objects have to included in the observations and calculations.
This mismatch will be larger the more stars are involved and the longer the timeframe.
The biggest problem, when we want is to understand the whole of the universe, most of that is complete invisible to us because of distance. For the rest, what we see is only the present state of the stars in our immediate surroundings. All the rest of the present state is at a far distance and presently invisible to us, because it takes time for these stars, that, light emitted by these stars, becomes visible to us. When we observe these stars they can be used as observations in the past.
When you use a grid and clocks at each grid point, as in #1, you 'don't have' this problem because assuming all clocks run synchronised, all the observers, near each clock, together can decide for each star which clock is the closest and calculate the clock's position.
The problem with strategy #2 is that this requires the speed of light. That means you need the speed of light for the whole of the universe. The calculation of the speed of light involves the same strategy as the calculation of the speed of a star. That means you must establish two observation points to monitor the flash and two clocks two measure the events when the flash passes each of these points. Simple mathematics can be used to calculate the speed of light. The major problem is that the two clocks should be synchronized.
. . *A1 . H1*
. . . /
. . . /
. . * . / *
. . . /
. . . /
. .* . / *
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.G *G1 .H / *
.\ .\ /. /
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. * . / F1/ . *
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./ / . \./
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................................
A C B
v=0 --->v>0
|
The right side shows the situation when both clocks move towards the right.
This makes it impossible to calculate the speed of light in one direction To declaire the speed of light a constant is a soft solution. It should be mentioned that the speed v of an observer has physical nothing to do with the speed of light. The observer can have any speed to the left or to the right. Also the speed of light has nothing to do with the speed of the source of the light flash. If at the moment of emission at a certain point, there are two sources: one at rest and one moving, both will generate the same sphere of light, with the same center. |
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