Abstract

The classical concept of projectile motion underwent a series of seemingly minor changes and adjustments between Planck’s quantum discovery and Dirac’s early codification of quantum theory. The goal of physicists in this period was to keep change to a minimum and preserve as much as possible of the traditional projectile paradigm. These adjustments were successful in masking an all-out projectile paradigm crisis, but they have left us with a conceptual muddle. This has been especially deleterious for special relativity and our understanding of space contraction and time dilation.