Editing Lorentz transformation (section)

==History==

{{main|History of Lorentz transformations}}

Many physicists—including [[Woldemar Voigt]], [[George Francis FitzGerald|George FitzGerald]], [[Joseph Larmor]], and [[Hendrik Lorentz]]<ref>{{harvnb|Lorentz|1904}}</ref> himself—had been discussing the physics implied by these equations since 1887.<ref>{{harvnb|O'Connor|Robertson|1996}}</ref> Early in 1889, [[Oliver Heaviside]] had shown from [[Maxwell's equations]] that the [[electric field]] surrounding a spherical distribution of charge should cease to have [[spherical symmetry]] once the charge is in motion relative to the [[luminiferous aether]]. FitzGerald then conjectured that Heaviside's distortion result might be applied to a theory of intermolecular forces. Some months later, FitzGerald published the conjecture that bodies in motion are being contracted, in order to explain the baffling outcome of the [[Michelson–Morley experiment|1887 aether-wind experiment of Michelson and Morley]]. In 1892, Lorentz independently presented the same idea in a more detailed manner, which was subsequently called [[Length contraction|FitzGerald–Lorentz contraction hypothesis]].<ref>{{harvnb|Brown|2003}}</ref> Their explanation was widely known before 1905.<ref>{{harvnb|Rothman|2006|pages = 112f.}}</ref>

Lorentz (1892–1904) and Larmor (1897–1900), who believed the luminiferous aether hypothesis, also looked for the transformation under which [[Maxwell's equations]] are invariant when transformed from the aether to a moving frame. They extended the [[Fitzgerald–Lorentz contraction|FitzGerald–Lorentz contraction]] hypothesis and found out that the time coordinate has to be modified as well ("[[relativity of simultaneity|local time]]"). [[Henri Poincaré]] gave a physical interpretation to local time (to first order in {{math|''v''/''c''}}, the relative velocity of the two reference frames normalized to the speed of light) as the consequence of clock synchronization, under the assumption that the speed of light is constant in moving frames.<ref>{{harvnb|Darrigol|2005|pages=1–22}}</ref> Larmor is credited to have been the first to understand the crucial [[time dilation]] property inherent in his equations.<ref>
{{harvnb|Macrossan|1986|pages=232–34}}</ref>

In 1905, Poincaré was the first to recognize that the transformation has the properties of a [[group (mathematics)|mathematical group]],
and he named it after Lorentz.<ref>The reference is within the following paper:{{harvnb|Poincaré|1905|pages = 1504–1508}}</ref>
Later in the same year [[Albert Einstein]] published what is now called [[special relativity]], by deriving the Lorentz transformation under the assumptions of the [[principle of relativity]] and the constancy of the speed of light in any [[inertial reference frame]], and by abandoning the mechanistic aether as unnecessary.<ref>{{harvnb|Einstein|1905|pages=891–921}}</ref>