Abstract

The problem of the motion of empirical objects, as it appears from Newton through Leibniz, Huygens and Mach down to Einstein, acquires a special twist in Special Relativity : the shape of object’s surfaces appears to vary depending only on their relative state of motion . Through comparison of SRT with the Lorentz/Poincaré-Theory the following claim is expounded and justified: According to SRT and in opposition to LPT contraction of moving objects does not consist in the change of properties in the same object: instead of a modification of an object caused by another object there is a relativisation of the absolute proper shape "caused" by time