Miles Mathis’ first paper on the theory of relativity serves as an introductory text to his further papers on the same subject. He states
Absolutely everyone, Einstein included, thought that the transforms were transforming variables in one coordinate system to variables in another coordinate system. But this is not what the transforms do, mathematically or operationally. In any given experiment, what the transforms do is transform incoming data to local data.
Miles is simply wrong about this. It is precisely what the ‘transforms’ (Miles is talking about the Lorentz transformation) do ‘mathematically’ in the theory of special relativity. It can certainly be argued that the Lorentz transformation might not describe a physical aspect of reality. However, one of the ideas of special relativity that makes it so astonishing is this counter-intuitive transformation law between intertial reference frames. (1)
He argues that data we receive through electromagnetic radiation from very far or very fast objects is somehow skewed by the finite speed of light. In Miles’ description, the Lorentz transforms are simply a mathematical operation that corrects this change in the data on its way to us.
However, neither is the concept of data clearly defined at any point in his paper, nor does Miles give any argument as to why this elusive data should change. (2)
Two of the fundamental equations and assumptions of SR concern the movement of light in the two fields or coordinate systems.
x = ct
x’ = ct’
The first equation is how light travels relative to us here on earth. The x and t variables are our own local variables. I have no problem with this equation.
The second equation is how light travels in the other field. But there is no other analogous field, in a strict sense. What I mean is that x’ and t’ are how the spacecraft’s lengths and times look to us. How do we put c into that data, if it just data? In what sense is data a field that light can travel in?
The term local variables is not correct in this context. and are coordinates in a coordinate system that is valid throughout the whole of spacetime, even though it is assigned to an observer that we might call ‘local’. Again, Miles misunderstands a fundamental part of special relativity: The variables and denote coordinates in a different interial reference frame. They are numbers an observer would assign to a point in spacetime. (Although field is a term used in physics and mathematics, it does not have any significance here.)
The arguments that follow rely on these gross misunderstandings of the special theory of relativity. If the reader is still in doubt as to wether Miles arguments are believable, let us instead look somewhere where we can really pin Miles down: He contradicts experimental evidence.
As for the believers, they have also strayed far a-field. They have pretended to an understanding they never had. They have tried to force upon us twin paradoxes and varying atomic clocks in airplanes and all manner of other mysteries and mystifications.
Miles is refering to the Hafele-Keating experiment. This famous and amusing experiment (where several atomic clocks were flown around the earth to see wether there would be any difference in the time measured on the lights) is in very good agreement with the predictions of the theory of relativity. (Note that in this experiment, no data travels from a faraway place or a fast moving object to any observer. The clocks are compared at rest.) You can find the original papers here and here.
Many of the predictions of special relativity are very counter-intuitive and it is fair to ask wether the theory correctly describes what we measure. Miles however grossly misunderstands the theory and certainly does not give any corrections to it.
(1): If you are unfamiliar with the concepts of special relativity, it might seem that Miles simply has a different but equally valid interpretation of the mathematics behind Einstein’s theory. Although many of the concepts can be illustrated in famous examples such as the twin paradox or the train driving through a tunnel, there is no easy way to explain the mathematical side of special relativity in detail. Let me however assure you that, by assuming that the Lorentz transformations are simply a correction to skewed data, special relativity looses many, if not all, of it’s defining features.
(2) We feel that this is really all there is to say about Miles’ lengthy part about data.