An Experimental Proposal for Testing the Equivalence of Inertial Frames Independent of Space and Time

Abstract

This paper proposes an experimental design that could, in principle, detect the motion of the Earth through the ether, if such an ether exists, while Lorentz transformations remain valid between moving frames within the ether. In other words, it is assumed that Lorentz transformations apply between a frame at rest in the ether and a frame moving through the ether, with time dilation and length contraction being real physical effects rather than merely relative effects perceived by different observers. Under these assumptions, any experiment involving temporal or spatial measurements could potentially be affected by time dilation and length contraction in such a way that the experimental result would not reveal the absolute motion of the Earth through the ether. Therefore, the proposed experimental design is constructed so that the outcome does not depend on the calculation or comparison of temporal or spatial intervals.