Concluding remarks

The time has now come to draw my reflections to a close and to summarise what I have done. My starting point was the startling statement of special relativity that the one-way speed of light is constant for every observer. I have shown that this statement is only true in a very formal sense, based on a definition of time coordinates which violates the principles of causality and of simultaneity as normally understood.

This key finding left a big question wide open: why is the two-way speed of light constant for every observer? The answer I give can be summarised as follows:

In every point in space and time, there is one local coordinate system in which light travels in symmetric conditions in every direction. Movement of any body in relation to that coordinate system contracts the space occupied by that body because the forces that hold the body together change. This leads to the finding of a constant two-way speed of light.

I have demonstrated how this happens for electric forces between uniformly moving charges. Importantly, I have done so without using the concept of magnetism between moving electric charges, which is an unexplained and ultimately unphysical entity in classical physics.

I have extended this new approach to electrodynamics to accelerated charges. This has yielded results that only partially correspond to classical theory. I am unable to say how close my findings are to reality. I will have to leave verifying this, and if necessary further developing my approach to accelerated charges, to future generations of physicists. As for myself, I feel I have probed the questions which preoccupied me from my teens in sufficient depth for now. Others can take over from here.