FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction


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Related to FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction: Relativistic length contraction, Space contraction

FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction

The contraction of a moving body in the direction of its motion. In 1892 G. F. FitzGerald and H. A. Lorentz proposed independently that the failure of the Michelson-Morley experiment to detect an absolute motion of the Earth in space arose from a physical contraction of the interferometer in the direction of the Earth's motion. According to this hypothesis, as formulated more exactly by Albert Einstein in the special theory of relativity, a body in motion with speed v is contracted by a factor in the direction of motion, where c is the speed of light. See Light, Relativity

McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Physics. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction

[fits¦jer·əld lə′rens kən‚trak·shən]
(relativity)
The contraction of a moving body in the direction of its motion when its speed is comparable to the speed of light. Also known as Lorentz contraction; Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive ?
Here the Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction is a real dynamical effect of absolute motion, unlike the Einstein spacetime view that it is merely a spacetime perspective artifact, and whose magnitude depends on the choice of observer.
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The relativistic Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction effect causes the arm AB parallel to the absolute velocity to be physically contracted to length
A new light-speed anisotropy experiment: absolute motion and gravitational waves detected
where [k.sup.2] [approximately equal to]n([n.sup.2] - 1), while neglect of the Fitzgerald-Lorentz contraction effect gives [k.sup.2] [approximately equal to] [n.sup.3] [approximately equal to] 1 for gases, which is essentially the Newtonian calibration that Michelson used.
The Michelson and Morley 1887 experiment and the discovery of absolute motion

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