Abstract

The Lorentz transformations can be considered, without any doubt whatsoever, as the backbone of the theory of Special Relativity. Nonetheless, both the conventional derivation of the transformations and the meaning commonly assigned to them have been often savagely criticized, to the extent that, despite an alleged empirical evidence, the whole Special Relativity, in several occasions, has been brought into question. This paper is finalized to more thoroughly discuss a line of reasoning, elsewhere used in order to carry out an alternative deduction of the mass – energy equivalence, that may lead, amongst other things, towards the assignment of a new meaning to the Lorentz transformations, without any loss of formal validity. The transformations can be alternatively deduced once assumed some noteworthy hypotheses concerning our Universe, among which the existence of at least a further spatial dimension stands out. It is fundamental to underline that time is supposed as being absolute.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.