Critique of the Einstein clock variable

This paper presents a fundamental and far-reaching criticism of the special theory of relativity. It aims to rescue the precious variable t from the artificial interpretation that Einstein gave it. Einstein defined a certain variable and called it time. I show that calling this variable time is extremely misleading. Instead I call it the Einstein clock variable, and I discuss the role of clocks in the scientific project of describing nature without using the word “time.” Einstein defines his clock variable as a fourth variable belonging to an inertial coordinate system. Each inertial coordinate system has its own instance of the Einstein clock variable, just as it has its own instances of three distance variables. A coordinate system's instance of the Einstein clock variable is defined by a spatial array of indefinitely many clocks, all at rest relative to the object that anchors the coordinate system, and all coordinated with one another using a method that Einstein specifies. The key finding of this paper is that Einstein's method of coordinating clocks results in a variable that has a nonzero spatial gradient. The value of the variable varies systematically with location, much as atmospheric pressure varies with altitude or the readings on clocks in airports around the world vary with time zone. All the sensational claims of the special theory of relativity, including the relativity of simultaneity, time dilation, length contraction, and the merging of space and time, use familiar words as redefined by Einstein to describe aspects of the relationship between two differently sloping instances of the Einstein clock variable. There is nothing in nature corresponding to any of these claims. The spatially sloping clock variable on which they are based is a thought-warping artifice that has no business in descriptions of nature. If physics is to be a natural science, this variable has no business in physics.