Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2014) 129: 16
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2014-14016-4

Regular Article

Thim’s experiment and exact rotational space-time transformations

¹ Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, University of Minnesota, 55414, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
² Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 02747, North Dartmouth, MA, USA

^* e-mail: lhsu@umn.edu

Received: 1 July 2013
Accepted: 9 January 2014
Published online: 30 January 2014

Abstract

Thim measured the transverse Doppler shift using a system consisting of a stationary antenna and pickup, in addition to a number of intermediate antennas mounted on the rim of a rotating disk. No such shift was detected, although the experiment should have had enough sensitivity to measure it, as predicted by the Lorentz transformations. However, using the Lorentz transformations to analyze the results of experiments involving circular motion, while commonly done, is inappropriate because such an analysis involves non-inertial frames, which are outside the range of validity of special relativity. In this paper, we re-analyze Thim's experiment using exact rotational space-time transformations, finding that his null result is consistent with theoretical predictions.