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Binary Stars as Evidence Against Ritz's Relativity
(Articles by Willem de Sitter)

Latest update 11 Dec 2009. Changes and additions are in bold.

In 1908 Swiss physicist Walter Ritz proposed a ballistic relativity theory in which the velocity of a source of electromagnetic radiation is additive to the velocity of light. Ritz died in the following year at age 31.

In 1913 Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and cosmologist Willem de Sitter published a series of articles related to binary star observations which he said provided evidence for a constant speed of light, thus disproving Ritz's relativity. Below are the first four articles in the de Sitter series. (Readers are encouraged to reach their own conclusions.)


[1] Ein astronomischer Beweis für die
Konstanz der Lichgeshwindigkeit

(An Astronomical Proof for the
Constancy of the Speed of Light),
Physik. Zeitschr. 14, 429, (1913)
German | Scanned | English Translation

[2] A Proof of the constancy of the velocity of light,
Proceedings of the Section of Sciences - Koninklijke Academie van Wetenschappen -- te Amsterdam, 15, 1297 (1913). HTML Copy


[3] Über die Genauigkeit, innerhalb welcher die
Unabhängigkeit der Lichtgeschwindigkeit
von der Bewegung der Quelle behauptet
werden kann.
(About the accuracy, within which the independence of the speed of light from the movement of the source can be stated), Physik. Zeitschr. 14, 1267, (1913)
German | Scanned | English Trans

[4] On the constancy of the velocity of light,
Proceedings of the Section of Sciences - Koninklijke Academie van Wetenschappen -- te Amsterdam, 16, 395 (1913). HTML Copy

Section on the Barr effect has been removed.

Shade Tree Physics

Robert Fritzius
fritzius@bellsouth.net

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