To further understand this conclusion, we need to look into time dilation and
length contraction in more detail.
Such disagreements with Einstein lead Ohanian to revive Hendrik Lorentz's old theory (that a privileged reference frame exists in the universe and that there are dynamical causes for the relativistic effects of
length contraction and time dilation).
Bringing in the "Twin Paradox" and other such paradoxes, chapter 3 deals with time dilation (moving clocks run slow when measured by clocks at rest) and
length contraction. Many authors fail to realize that for Einstein, space and time are defined in terms of the measurements themselves: "The measurements are the reality" (p.
The resolution of this apparent paradox lies in another prediction of special relativity:
length contraction. An observer on the Earth sees the length of the spacecraft shrink by 40 percent, while an observer onboard the ship sees the distance between the Earth and Sirius contract by 40 percent, from 8.6 to only 5.2 light-years.
From this assumption it was possible to deduce
length contraction and mass increase with velocity.
Finally, the following remarks on
length contraction and time dilation will be useful later in the paper.
This result would seem to be at odds with the often quoted experimental tests of special relativity confirming time dilation and
length contraction. But if we consider, for example, Bailey et al's muon experiment [2], we find that there is no contradiction with the experimental observations: a perceived time dilation is observed in the Earth's laboratory frame of reference while the muon, in its frame of reference has no time dilation--note that no measurements were carried out in the muon's frame of reference in the Bailey experiment.
Craig argues that the various bizarre and counterintuitive scenarios brought on by the SR (Twin Paradox,
length contraction of rods in motion, clock retardation) must be critically examined.
It covers the observational motivations for relativity, time dilation,
length contraction, relativistic energy and mass, simultaneity, and even the Lorentz transformations and Minkowski diagrams.
Sections 6 and 7 show that
length contraction and time dilation are the consequences of this kinematic constraint, so luminal systems display all the usual relativistic phenomena.