gwyn@BRL@sri-unix (09/22/82)
From: Doug Gwyn <gwyn@BRL> If I said in my note about Special Relativity's internal consistency that it is the study of the way physical >objects< transform under the Lorentz group, that was a slip of the tongue. Of course, the physical objects themselves don't care what coordinate system one uses. I meant to say, the way physical >quantities< transform. (The quantity is a complete set of measurements characterizing the object under a given reference system.) The theory of relativity can be built starting with this idea of an objective reality and carefully developing the theme, with only a few minimal assumptions added to guide the development. I haven't seen such a presentation written up anywhere, however, other than in my Master's thesis.