[ExI] QT and SR

[John K Clark]

"Jeff Davis" <jrd1415 at gmail.com>

> The "solution" is wrong.  The strings do not break.

I don't think it's wrong, I think the string would break.

> If you were on board the space ships, in which frame of
> reference the laws  of physics would operate in pedestrian
> fashion, where is there any reason for the strings to break?

If I tacked a string inside the cockpit of my accelerating spaceship
from the front to back the string would NOT break because the 
atoms and electromagnetic fields inside the string would shrink at
the same rate as the atoms in the cockpit walls. However if I tied
a string from the front of my spaceship to the back of another 10
feet ahead of mine and accelerating at the same rate the string 
would break because the atoms in the sting would shrink just as 
they did before but there is nothing else between the two 
spaceships to counterbalance that effect, there is only empty space.

Also, when you hear the term "same frame of reference" it usually
refers to an inertial frame of reference, but this one is accelerating
so you have to be careful;  then you can have all sorts of pseudo 
forces operating WITHIN the frame, like tides. For example, 
General Relativity tells us that rockets firing their engines is 
equivalent to them falling in a gravitational field. If they were 
falling toward a Neutron Star the lower one would be a little 
closer to the star and so puller a little faster than the one above
and so the string would break even though some might say they
are in the same frame of reference. 

>Mr. Bell may have been a very bright fellow

Indeed!

> but outside his area of expertise just as likely to get it wrong

That was his area of expertise.

 John K Clark