About the Arrow of Time

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Scientific Paper
Title About the Arrow of Time
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Author(s) Cynthia Kolb Whitney
Keywords {{{keywords}}}
Published 2012
Journal Proceedings of the NPA
Volume 9
No. of pages 6
Pages 655-660

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Abstract

becomes an inevitable part of the mathematical description of all systems. That point is the appearance of Maxwell?s four coupled field equations. Very early, the four coupled field equations were inserted one into another to produce two uncoupled wave equations. This manipulation revealed the finite wave propagation speed . Compared to Newtonian physics, the finite wave propagation speed was something new in Physics. But it wasn't then tied into the development of irreversibility, because the two wave equations themselves are time reversal invariant. However, the original coupled field equations are not time reversal invariant, and from that fact there flows an important story that has implications concerning the status we should attribute to Einstein's Special Relativity Theory (SRT).