Desedimentation of Minkowski Spacetime

Abstract

Cosgrove here applies the historical findings of the previous two chapters to the concept of Minkowski spacetime. While the Minkowski spacetime interval is often called a “generalization” of the Pythagorean Theorem, Einstein himself always more correctly referred to a formal analogy between the four-dimensional spacetime continuum and the three-dimensional continuum of Euclidean space. Thus the physical reality of Minkowski spacetime depends on whether the squared terms in the expression c ² dt ² − dx ² designate actual geometrical quantities. Cosgrove concludes that the aforementioned algebraic terms do not designate geometrical quantities but rather represent symbolically abbreviated compound ratios. The Minkowski spacetime interval and all four-vectors constructed upon it are thereby revealed as symbolic artifacts.