Correction, if you don't know what your frame's velocity is, then you have no business measuring light in your frame and debating me about the speed of light in my frame (that does know the frame's velocity, and therefor can know both the speed of the frame and the speed of light). I know the speed of the frame, so like in your example, I determined the car was traveling .99c, so I KNOW that since my car is traveling .99c that the real speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s. On the other hand, you don;t know the velocity of the car, because you have no way of determining that velocity in space, not relative to no other object. There is no other object to have a relative velocity to, there is simply a car in space and the light it emitted. You made up some BS .99c car velocity, like you had known that from measurements you took in the car. So tell me, how did you determine the .99c velocity using light and clocks in your car??? I'm dying to hear this!!!
I used a car as an example because I was using a traditional thought experiment. Keep in mind, the principle of relativity has been around a lot longer than Einstein's explicit use. It goes back to Galileo (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilean_invariance) and applies to Newtonian mechanics as well. All it means is that physical laws must look the same to one observer as they do to another.
So let's try this again. You and I are in space, maybe in an EVA suit, traveling toward one another at a constant velocity of 99% of the speed of light. There are no planets or stars visible, we are in intergalactic space, the only reference to determine that you or I are even moving is that we can see each other. I measure you coming toward me at about .99c and you therefore must be measuring the same thing. We both have flashlights. How do you determine that you are the one that is stationary and I am moving, i.e. that your frame is the correct one? How do you know that I'm not traveling at .49c and you at .5c? Of course it doesn't actually matter as there is no such thing as non-relative motion or a special frame of reference because there is nothing in empty space that can be referenced, like the luminiferous aether. So in this scenario, how would you prove to me that you are stationary and your measurement of light is the correct one and mine in in error. The answer you have basically given is that we both turn on our flashlights and the one that measures c at 300,000 km/s is the correct one. There's the rub. If your belief in some absolute space is true, then we should be measuring the speed of light differently at different directions the earth is moving when orbiting the sun. When going one direction against the fixed space that you claim is present we should get one result and 6 months later we should get another, and the guy in the space suit that positioned himself near the sun would get a third. You are basically ruling out any long range radio communication with my friend in another galaxy because his galaxy is whizzing by us at tremendous speeds yet he thinks his galaxy is the stationary one and ours is the one that is moving... what a fool, huh?
Don't make plural what is not. It's not "our" measurements in error, it's YOUR measurements in error. I know what the velocity of the frame is, you do not. Since I know the velocity of the frame I can make an ACCURATE determination of the real speed of light.
Do you deny you are moving at great speeds through space while sitting in your house typing this now? Tell me the exact velocity of the frame you are now in. Don't forget to take into account what time of year it is because sometimes the earth is moving in the same direction as the spiral arms of the Milky Way are moving and sometimes the opposite. I can't wait to hear how fast we are actually going, especially considering the expansion of space has been accelerating since the Big Bang.
Everyone has the correct measurement if they first know their frame's velocity.
Yet unless there is something inherent in space we can measure against, like the aether, how can we know our velocity?
If you use Einstein's ways, you don;t know the frame's velocity, because in Einstein's world, it's not your frame that is moving, it's every other frame that is moving. Ask all of them, they'll tell you. (What a load of crap!)
As explained, it's not a principle of Einstein, it's a self-evident fact about measuring invariant speed. It is impossible to tell if I am moving or I am completely still and everything else is moving. You keep failing to explain how we are supposed to know anything about the absolute velocity of any frame if it is not relative to anything.
Length contraction has never been falsified so it's what, still taken to be true? (rolls eyes) I have an invisible blue dragon in my living room. It's never been falsified.
Sure an invisible dragon might not be able to be falsified yet we didn't arrive at thinking there is an invisible dragon based on evidence. It is funny how you completely ignore my comments about time dilation, which can be measured and is intrinsically linked to length contraction.
If you are moving only along the x axis the y and z axis are NOT contracted. So as in your car example, the car is moving along the x axis. Do you think the light will be the same distance from you along the y and z axis after 1 second, as it is along the x axis after one second?
Who's x and y axis? Mine or yours? If I appear to be moving diagonally from your POV, that's two axises. Of course from my POV, your apparent movement is on one axis only because the Cartesian grid I setup is shifted 45 degrees from the one you are using. Oh, wait, you can just turn your head a bit and I'm no longer going diagonally but straight from left to right.
Another correction. It's Einstein that doesn't have a way to determine the preferred frame. I have a way of determining an absolute zero velocity in the preferred frame. I know the frame's velocity, regardless of the velocity (to include a zero velocity). Einstein has no method of determining an absolute zero velocity, so he fabricates his illusion world.
Well I'm still waiting for you to give us your magical answer of how you determine anywhere has zero velocity. I have already demonstrated that you can pick a point in space and I can show that you are in motion. Of course that can only be done in space where there are other things to measure your relative motion against.
No, the speed of light is defined.
Incorrect. The speed of light has been measured. It was discovered, not defined.
It is impossible for the speed of light to be anything different than 299,792,458 m/s,
Correct. So now back to you and I in empty space with flashlights. We BOTH must get the same measurement for the speed of light, even though we are approaching each other at 99& of that speed. My flashlight beam is traveling at 300,000 km/s same as yours, yet we both feel like we are standing still so we each think the other is the one that is moving and if each of us are carrying light clocks, it will appear to each of us that the other person's clocks have slowed down and if each of us were carrying a one meter metal rod, it MUST appear to each of us that the other guy's is shorter than our meter.
Relative to the light sphere. Relative to the point that the light was emitted in space.
Throughout all of history, every time many has measured the speed of the sphere of light form their fixed position, they have been moving through space at tremendous speeds. There is no spot in the entire universe that you can point to that has true absolute zero velocity.
It's not "my" frame of reference, it's the preferred frame because all objects travel in the preferred frame where light travel time defines distance.
Circular response. The position you choose is preferred because light is traveling at a specific speed; light is traveling at a specific speed, therefore that frame is preferred.
No, his BS! I had it right the first time. There is one car in space. How do you determine its velocity using light and clocks? Again, Einstein has no way of knowing that, so he pretends that since you don't know the velocity of the frame, and no way of knowing, that it must be zero. lol
I never said you weren't in a car also, you merely assumed that. When I started the thought experiment, I didn't think I needed to teach a remedial lesson about Galilean invariance.
When light travel time is the same one way times along a stick and back, in all directions, then the stick has an absolute zero velocity.
So something that I should be able to do in any inertial reference frame, which means that there are no preferred frames of reference.
Who the F is Einstein to tell me no one can know the absolute velocity of my frame.
Einstein never told you anything of the sort. Einstein merely built upon that fact that has been understood for over 400 years and applied it to speeds approaching the speed of light.
His whole world is based on a misguided assumption that one can't possibly know the velocity of a frame in the preferred frame.
The fact that you can think there is any preferred frame, and have been unable to explain how there is, demonstrates who is really the misguided one.
His whole world is based on the assumption that his frame is never in motion, it's always the 'other' frame that's in motion.
Actually, this sounds like what you are claiming, that you can show me a frame that is never in motion.
Sorry buddy, when using light and clocks to determine the meter you have to KNOW the velocity of the frame!
Sorry buddy, but when we have to go back to explain the 400 year old principle of relativity which holds true even if there is such a thing as absolute space, then you are the one that is ignoring remedial physical truths about inertial reference frames which then hinders your understanding of SR and explains why you cannot grasp its implications and think it incorrect.