Journal de recherche et d'applications en physique

Imprecision which makes it difficult to study the article "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies"

Dmitri Kobzev*

The existence of a semantic inaccuracy of 2 articles by A. Einstein "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies", illustrating the principle of the relativity of simultaneity. In a sentence "Observers co-moved with the moving rod would thus observe that the two clocks do not operate synchronously while observers of the system at rest would declare them synchronous", the preposition "not" must be moved and placed before the word "synchronous", at the end of the sentence. The criterion of synchronism of the clocks on the rod is the time taken by the beam to go from clock A to clock B and vice versa, and for observers on the rod, it will be the same both when the rod is at rest and when the rod is in motion. Otherwise, observers on the rod would have had at their disposal an experiment that would allow them to determine whether the rod is moving or at rest, which contradicts the first postulate of the special theory of relativity. The inaccuracy is unchanged in modern English and Russian editions, and can become a source of difficulties when teaching the basics of the special theory of relativity from primary sources, as well as make it difficult to understand the author's logic during independent study. Nobel laureate R. Feynman, having developed and modified A. Einstein's thought experiment, eliminated the inaccuracy described in the article.