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Restoring the Physical Meaning of Energy

—distinguishing between the apparent energy and the real energy of moving mass

Conrad Ranzan

(2012)

Preprint of an article submitted for publication in Applied Physics

Abstract: By referencing the rest-frame of the aether it becomes possible to

distinguishing between the apparent energy and the real energy of moving mass. There

is no theoretical obstacle in distinguishing between observer-dependent energy and

observer-independent energy. The same may be said for clock time, length contraction,

and momentum.

Keywords: Energy; apparent energy; real energy; total energy; kinetic energy; mass

invariance; aether; aether frame; intrinsic motion; DSSU

.

The Problem

Energy has a simple definition: It represents, in physics, the capacity for doing work. Energy

manifests as mass-energy and radiation-energy and motion-energy.

Energy enters into all dynamical processes. Matter itself is a highly localized form of energy —called

mass.

The role of energy is fundamental. The operation of the universe is ruled by the law of conservation

of energy.

The problem is that conventional Physics is ruled by a theory which undermines that fundamental

role. For over 100 years Einstein’s theory of relativity has dominated the theoretical formulation of

energy. Contained in the theory’s expression for mass-energy is the speed of the object. But this speed is

not any ordinary speed; it is the relative speed between the observer and the object. It is the “relativism”

of this speed that allows every inertial observer to assign a different velocity magnitude, and thus a

different energy, to any given object or particle! If different observers cannot agree on the mass energy of

one-and-the-same object, then the fundamental role of energy is lost.

The problem, expressed another way, is that Einstein’s relativistic energy equation, Etotal = γmc2,

represents only the apparent total energy. It does not and cannot provide the underlying intrinsic total

energy —what some would call the object’s real energy.

Here is how the Italian physicist Franco Selleri describes the energy problem. He considers it a

paradoxical “conflict between the reciprocal transformability of mass and energy and the ideology of

relativism, which declares all inertial observers perfectly equivalent so depriving energy of its full

reality.” [1 Emphasis added]

Selleri continues, “Every inertial observer assigns a different velocity, and thus a different energy, to

any given particle.” And because of the impossibility of choosing one of these as being “more true” than

another, “one is forced to conclude that a real value of energy does not exist. In this way energy is at once

stripped of the property of having a well-defined numerical value

The Resolution

While Einstein’s theory provides us with an observer-dependent energy concept; what is needed is an

energy formulation that is independent of the observer.

We start with the textbook expression for the apparent total-energy of mass m:

Etotal = γ mc2, which expands to

The symbol υ represents the relative speed between the observer and the mass object. Calling it a

“relative” speed means that the apportionment of that speed to the observer and the object is not

important. Whether the observers, say, in a spacecraft approaching an asteroid, assert that υ is the

spacecraft’s forward speed or the asteroid’s approach speed does not matter. It matters not because υ is

simply an apparent speed that helps quantify the apparent total energy.

Our universe, the Dynamic Steady State Universe* (DSSU), is dominated by the presence and the

dynamics of a detectable aether medium. By referencing this medium it becomes possible to express the

single relative speed in terms of two aether-referenced (intrinsic) speeds.

The equation that makes this conversion is

The symbols υ, υA, and υB represent collinear velocities or velocity components; c is the speed of

light. The intrinsic motion of the observer (assigned to reference frame “A”) is given by υA, and the

intrinsic motion of the mass body (assigned to reference frame “B”) is given by υB. And, of course, the

relative motion between them is υ.

By substituting eqn (2) into (1) we obtain,

which is still the expression for the apparent total energy, but now expressed in terms of aetherreferenced

motion.

From this expression we are able to extract the object’s real total energy —the energy as a property

independent of the observer— by simply removing the motion of the observer. The speed of the observer,

υA, is, mathematically, set to zero. The result is the total real energy of mass body B:

Significantly, there is no reference to the observer’s speed in the expression. Setting the speed of the

observer to zero is equivalent to embedding the observer into the rest frame of the aether medium.

The only non-constant on the right-hand side is the intrinsic speed of the mass body B. The challenge

is to determine that speed.