At 11:22 PM 7/5/98 -0400, you wrote:
> --
>>Well, they grow closer together. But they don't individually flatten,
>they
>>undergo relativistic rotation.
>Er? Why would one part of space undergo
>a different transformation?
Sorry, I think I've confused matters here. Rothman put it this way:
`This new interpretation of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction does not change the basic theory at all.' I.e., things still contract relative to each other. But: `travellers whizzing by a star at relativistic speed will see not a foreshortened spheroid but a sphere, which will seem to be rotating so that they can briefly see its far side!'
Damien Broderick