3.3.2 Velocity and Motion of Particles
It is a common observation that objects, integral to themselves, move through 'empty' space without hindrance. This is the appearance of reality on which Newton based his laws of motion in terms of force, mass and velocity. In extending these laws to include gravity, he adopted the concept of an Ether which fills the whole of space and serves to transmit the forces of gravity from one material object to another. How such an Ether could be rigid enough to transmit force, and yet fluid enough for objects to pass through it unhindered, was never explained. Nonetheless, Newton's laws of motion and gravity have been used for most practical purposes with great success. \\
In Special Relativity, the universe is viewed as an infinitely vast, three dimensional empty space, containing no special points from which an absolute distance or velocity might be measured. Neither does it contain an Ether capable of transmitting force or supporting radiation. For these reasons, in Special Relativity, velocity, between two observers (objects) is necessarily relative. A solitary observer in empty space has no means of measuring velocity except in relation to another observer. In the situation of multiple observers moving with different velocities relative to each other, the only way this scheme can be valid is for each observer to assume that he is stationary, and that all others are moving. Hence, Special Relativity represents a subjective view of the universe rather than an objective one,\\
In an infinite, flat, empty space it is reasonable to accept that all velocities must be relative, however, Special Relativity accords absolute status to the velocity of light, whereby multiple observers, each with its own unique velocity, measure the speed of light passing between them to have the same, constant value. For this miracle to be possible, it is necessary for each observer to view other observers as having different standards of length and time. These are different for each pair of observers moving relatively to each other, and are given by the Lorentz Transform - a mathematical subterfuge suggested by the Dutch physicist, Anton Lorentz, but put in its final form by Einstein.\\
This early version of Relativity, published by Einstein in 1905, is based on his view that space is three dimensional, empty and flat. Missing from this theory is an explanation of gravity. Even so, it enabled Einstein to make two important discoveries, the mass/energy conversion ratio, $E=mc^2$, and that kinetic energy is stored as extra mass. In the following three years, Einstein realized that to include gravity, space would have to be curved, which implied an extra space dimension to accommodate curvature. However, this line of thought was abandoned in 1908 when Minkowski presented his theory of a space/time continuum, wherein the fourth dimension is time - not space. \\
It is interesting to speculate that, had Einstein followed his intuition concerning curved space and an implied fourth space dimension, he would have discovered that an expansion velocity equal to the velocity of light would have affected each moving observer in the same way without the necessity of the Lorentz Transform. \\
In the new theory presented here, the unique direction of expansion, perpendicular to all three axes of the continuum, provides a continuous reference to which an absolute velocity may be referred. In this case, each point in the energy continuum is 'special' in that its direction of expansion is unique.\\
Difficulties arise in the analysis of moving objects since the velocity trajectory of a particle moving in the energy continuum with velocity, $v$, is no longer parallel to the direction of expansion, but tilted from it by an angle, $\theta$, where, $tan(\theta) = v/c_0$. This angle of tilt distorts the shape of the particle so that it is no longer perfectly spherical, and it is this shape distortion which causes the increase in a particle's total energy that we know as kinetic energy. Since a gravitational particle is part of the continuum, it is also possible that whole regions of the continuum, together with any particles contained therein, can move with absolute velocity. For example, it is said that the whole Solar System is moving around the center of the Milky Way galaxy with an absolute velocity, (within the continuum) of about 230,000 meters per second.
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