GPS Does Not Require Relativity

A nice summary of the non-dependence of GPS on relativity just came out by Springer with his paper "Does the GPS System Rely upon Einstein’s Relativity?". Also, like Springer, another expert on GPS, Ron Hatch, has been writing on the topic at least since 1995. He presented many of the complicated details and illogical claims of relativity in a video conference. Some of Hatch's beliefs are quite conventional (length contraction, absolute time, etc.), but, like Springer, he clearly has not swallowed the entire relativity package. Both are cognizant of the apparent relation between clock rates and gravitation. If any of this intrigues you, get our latest book on "Universal Cycle Theory" (Puetz and Borchardt, 2011) or, at minimum, read our paper on "Neomechanical Gravitation Theory" (NGT) (Borchardt and Puetz, 2012). I also have a short Blog on our hypothesis involving “aethereal redshift” as being the actual physical explanation for the gravitational redshift predicted by Einstein.

Here is a short summary of the situation:

Remarkably, Einstein’s prediction concerning the gravitational redshift was partially accurate, but for the wrong reasons. First, he assumed that space was perfectly empty and that light was a particle; we assume that light is wave motion in the aether. Secondly, he assumed that light had a constant velocity; we assume that it is not constant and that its velocity depends on the density of the aether medium. His theory meant that photons would be affected by gravitation. Photons moving toward a massive body would be blueshifted and photons moving away from a massive body would be redshifted. Indeed, the Pound-Rebka (1960) experiment proved that light moving toward Earth was blueshifted and that light moving away from Earth was redshifted. Other massive objects in the universe also emit redshifted light. Each time this observation is made, it is taken by regressive physicists as a confirmation of general relativity theory (GRT). Recent news is that galaxy clusters produce a gravitational redshift.

Alternatively, our “Aethereal Redshift Theory” (ART) states that the density of the aether medium and thus the velocity of light increases with distance from baryonic (ordinary) matter. For a particular light frequency, an increase in velocity produces an increase in wavelength, which appears as the misnamed “gravitational” redshift. This variation in aether density is coincidentally what causes gravitation in NGT. Aether pressure away from a massive body is greater than it is near the massive body (as Newton speculated). So, it comes down to this: Is light affected by gravitation or not? Dowdy (2010) recently showed that light is unaffected by gravity. The upshot is that the bending of light during the Eddington (1918) observations that made Einstein famous was simply due to refraction within the sun’s corona. The bending predicted by Einstein does not occur when light traverses the sun at a distance twice the radius of the sun. This means, of course, that light is a wave and not a particle or wave-particle having mass.

Refs:

Borchardt, Glenn, and Puetz, Stephen J., 2012, Neomechanical gravitation theory, in Volk, G., ed., Proceedings of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, 19th Conference of the NPA, 25-28 July: Albuquerque, NM, Natural Philosophy Alliance, Mt. Airy, MD, p. 53-58. [10.13140/RG.2.1.3991.0483]
 
Dowdye, E.H., Jr., 2010, Findings convincingly show no direct interaction between gravitation and electromagnetism in empty vacuum space ( http://www.extinctionshift.com/SignificantFindings.htm ), in Volk, G., Proceedings of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, 17th Conference of the NPA, 23-26 June, 2010: Long Beach, CA, Natural Philosophy Alliance, Mt. Airy, MD, v. 7, p. 131-136.

Eddington, S.A., 1918, Report on the relativity theory of gravitation: London, Fleetway Press, 91 p.

Pound, R.V., and Rebka, G.A., 1960, Apparent Weight of Photons: Physical Review Letters, v. 4, no. 7, p. 337-341.

Puetz, S.J., and Borchardt, Glenn, 2011, Universal cycle theory: Neomechanics of the hierarchically infinite universe: Denver, Outskirts Press ( www.universalcycletheory.com ), 626 p.