Androcles wrote:
I understand that Einstein STARTED with
"light is always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity c

which is independent of the state of motion of the emitting body"
and then attempted some invalid mathematics, yes.
I also undertand that he used c+v and c-v in his computation
½[tau(0,0,0,t)+tau(0,0,0,t+x'/(c-v)+x'/(c+v))] =
tau(x',0,0,t+x'/(c-v))

And does the form x'/(c-v), or x'/(c-v) + x'/(c+v)
look familiar?

Did you perhaps see anything like that when you worked
out the mosquito problem?

Didn't you write this?

t1 = 32/(5-3) = 16

And this?

t2 = [ 16 + 32/(5+3) ] = 20.

Did you write them so long ago that you can no longer
remember what those denominators mean?

and said "But the ray moves relatively to the initial point of k,
when
measured in the stationary system, with the velocity c-v, so that
x'/(c-v) = t."

When I went to school, c-v was not equal to c.

And the mosquito is moving, according to a stationary
observer, at 5-3 = 2 m/sec. Yet we started out assuming
the mosquito moves at 5 m/sec, and 5 is not 2.

How, oh how, can we reconcile the 5 with the 2? When I
went to school, 5 was not 2.

Could it POSSIBLY be that "the speed in the stationary
system" and "the speed relative to a moving object, as
measured in the stationary system" are NOT THE SAME THING?
- Randy