Towards a New Transformation

This chapter aims to recall the many attempts performed between 1887 and 1904 by Woldemar VoigtVoigt, Woldemar, Emil CohnCohn, Emil and then Hendrik Antoon LorentzLorentz, Hendrik Antoon to establish a new transformation leaving invariant the electromagnetic laws of physics, i.e., MaxwellMaxwell, James Clerk’s four equations. It will thus be shown that by modifying Galileo’s transformationGalileo’s transformation while making use of Georg FitzGerald’sFitzGerald, George length contractionLength contraction hypothesis, Lorentz got very close to the goal without being able to reach it. Indeed, the ultimate transformation he presented in 1904 turned out to be incomplete. He could not therefore deduce the new relativistic velocity addition lawRelativistic velocity addition law. We will see then that Lorentz’s research on the Theory of electrons will lead Poincaré and then Einstein to the development of what will soon be called the special theory of relativitySpecial theory of relativity.