Anti-relativityists oppose what they believe to be the Theory of Relativity. They argue that there is a scientific establishment that unfairly protects special relativity. They also contend that many of the experiments that claimed to have offered proof of Einstein's theories represent bad science and poor methodology. Many of those claims are based around what is called the experimenter effect in which the experimenters' expectations guide the experiments to the expected results and color their interpretation. However, it's worth noting that nearly all the crucial experiments which form the empirical basis of special relativity (e.g., Michelson and Morley) actually gave results that were directly <b>contrary</b> to what the experimenters and theorists of the time anticipated and desired.

Anti-relativityists maintain that when experiments are done properly, results are obtained that contradict special relativity. Some use an experiment performed by Dayton Miller in the 1930's that found what corresponds to an ether-drift of 11 km/sec as an example. Most scientists believe that the small variations in interference fringes reported by Miller were due to instrumentation errors, and they point out that an "ether drift" of this magnitude is not consistent with any coherent ether theory, and, more importantly, that countless repetitions of similar experiments with far more precise equipment have consistently yielded a null result within experimental tolerances. Others such as Reg Cahill point out what they consider to be essential differences; in particular, Miller's device tested the Fizeau effect for gas. This is however not taken seriously by most other scientists, as no convincing explanation is provided.

It's notable that Miller's work is regarded by most scientists as an archtypical example of "the experimenter effect", because his reported non-null result was consistent with his prior expectation of a non-null result (as opposed to Michelson, whose result was the opposite of what he expected). On the other hand, Maurice Allais in the late 1990's claimed to have found a subtle pattern in Miller's data that he (Allais) believes was both unexpected and unnoticed by Miller. If so, one could not attribute this subtle pattern to the "experimenter effect". However, Allais' claims have not been validated by the scientific community, and he was unable to get his writings on this subject published in a peer reviewed physics journal. This is not surprising, since nearly all reputable physics journals have adopted a policy of not accepting anti-relativity papers.

Anti-relativity has not made a significant impact on science and experimental physics to date. The amount of experimental evidence has satisfied most observers, and several highly reproduced experiments support special relativity, including the Michelson-Morley experiment and the Kennedy-Thorndike experiment.

The theory of relativity attracts more opposition than other physics theories, such as quantum mechanics, for three main reasons. First, unlike quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity is accessible on all levels. It deals directly with the concepts of space, time, and motion, with which everyone is familiar, and it is easy to have an opinion about propositions involving these concepts, even if one does not understand relativity at all.

Second, unlike quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity is associated in the popular mind with one single individual (Albert Einstein), which makes it easy to personalize any objections to the theory. It is much easier to loudly declare "Einstein Was Wrong!" than it is to declare "Planck and Einstein and Born and Heisenberg and Schrodinger and Born and Dirac and Pauli Were Wrong!". The men known to be involved in the development of quantum mechanics span a wide range of nationalities, religions, politics, and personalities, so it is difficult to carry over antagonisms from those areas into objections against quantum mechanics. In contrast, any antagonisms against the personality of Einstein can be carried over as fuel for anti-relativityism.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, the word "relativity" is easily conflated with the concept of "relativism", even though the theory of relativity has nothing whatsoever to do with relativism. In fact, many prominent workers in the field of relativity (including Einstein, Sommerfeld, Minkowski, and Klein) argued that the concepts involved in the theory of relativity would be more accurately conveyed by naming it The Theory of Invariants, or The Theory of the Absolute World (as suggested by Minkowski). If one of these names had been adopted, instead of the misleading word "relativity", there would doubtless be much less anti-relativityism. (Incidentally, this explains why the correct term is anti-relativityism, rather than anti-relativism, those being two entirely different things.)

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, anti-relativityists argue that there is a scientific establishment that unfairly protects special relativity. They (the anti-relativityists) attribute this conspiracy to a variety of causes and motivations. Some believe (and loudly proclaim) that it is due to sheer stupidity on the part of physicists, to the extent that they (Nobel-prize-winning physicists) cannot understand what is obvious to a child. Others attribute it to "brain-washing" carried out by the academic system, but this begs the question of what motivates the academic system to do this. The most common explanation given by anti-relativityists for the pro-relativity conspiracy is that many physicists have a vested interest (both financial and emotional) in relativity, and are simply too proud, stubborn, greedy, and venal to admit the manifest erroneousness of relativity when it is clearly explained to them by amateurs. Naturally, physicsts deny that there is any conspiracy, and contend that the principle of relativity is so widely accepted in scientific circles simply because it provides the best (i.e., most unified, coherent, heuristically productive) account of phenomena.

The original Anti-Relativity Company (as Einstein dubbed it) was formed in Germany between the world wars, and included Lenard, Stark, and a few other noted members. The motivations of that group, objecting to "Jewish Science", have been impugned subsequently.

See also

Process Physics

Resources

Did Einstein Cheat?

Modern Michelson-Morley experiment using cryogenic optical resonators

Anti-relativity

Ekkehard-Friebe critical overview (German)

Natural_Philosophy

Paul Weyland, the Einstein Killer