Our world is out of sync when clocks are out of step with time.
Can we uncover the definition of time and explain what Einstein didn't? Einstein defined photon clocks as perfect timekeepers that preserve the speed of light. Relativity’s success lies not in discovering new physics, but in framing mathematics around effects that physical science already accounts for. What do I mean?
What if some of our deepest scientific beliefs are based on misconceptions? Einstein once said, “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.” Yet his own work may prove the point. Einstein told us time is relative, while Newton claimed time is absolute. If time is absolute, as Newton insisted, then Relativity cannot be authentic. Is there another version of time?
Einstein became a global icon with the equation, E=mc², which shows the apparent equivalence of energy and matter. But does Relativity have a hidden aspect? Light itself suggests that it does. We see it, we feel its heat, yet we are told photons have no rest mass. My first book, Einstein Blindsided by the Light, explored this contradiction, asking: why can’t the rest mass of a photon be measured? The answer is that light is quantum energy, not particles of matter. And yet, photons appear in the Standard Model of Elementary Particles. If E=mc² has mass, how can it apply to light? These inconsistencies are not minor details; they strike at the foundation of physics.
I have pursued these cracks in Relativity across three books. The second book, Einstein Distorted by Gravity, showed how gravity emerges from quarks. In Einstein Misled by Time, I revealed the true definition of time. My next book brings these ideas together to update Einstein’s Relativity, or replace it with a model that is logical and consistent with nature.
Newton vs. Einstein: The Evolution of Time
Isaac Newton published his Principia in 1687, establishing classical mechanics. For Newton, absolute time exists independently of any observer, flowing at a steady rate throughout the universe.
Einstein, by contrast, claimed that space and time are relative. Yet neither Newton nor Einstein defined time itself. Both assumed that clocks measure time. However, we designed clocks to tick with the speed of Earth’s rotation. That's not a definition of time. Newton described movement through absolute space. Einstein imagined riding a beam of light and concluded that light is massless. For ten years, he wondered how gravity could bend massless light. His brilliant mathematics ignores the force of gravity.
Was Newton right about absolute time? Is Einstein's relative time correct? Neither. The truth is, there are two versions of time. The familiar one we display on clocks, watches, and phones, and the one nature shows in its motion. Before clocks, people saw the time from the Sun crossing the sky or sunlight shifting across the Moon’s surface. Nature’s “clock” is motion, not numbers. The universe was set into motion at the Big Bang, and every particle of matter and light vibrates at the speed of light that expands the universe.
The Core of Relativity
Einstein built his theory around time and said that a perfect photon clock always keeps the correct time in its own frame of reference. To preserve the invariance of the speed of light, he altered time itself by using a Lorentz transformation.
The scientific community accepted that a photon clock keeps “true” time within its frame. However, real clocks, including atomic, mechanical, and biological ones, are affected by gravity, temperature, and acceleration. All physical clocks are vulnerable to forces. The universe doesn't move because of time. It moves because of a force. Motion is the true principle behind what we call time.
The Nature of Light
Light is the keystone of modern physics, yet much about it remains unsettled. Where does light come from? Why does it move at the fastest speed in the universe? Does it have mass?
The Big Bang was not an explosion but the motion of energy moving at the speed of light into the container of space. Stars bring light to the universe through nuclear fusion, yet the universe itself continues to expand at the speed of light. We may feel stationary, but quantum particles in us are moving and emitting infrared light at the speed of light. However, nothing can outrun the motion of the universe itself.
Light proves its presence not only through vision but through work. Lasers cut steel. Photons warm our skin. Light has energy, and energy has presence. To claim light is “massless” is to deny its effect.
Einstein’s Imagination
Einstein’s breakthrough came not from experiment but imagination. He said, "Logic can take you from A to B, but imagination can take you everywhere." He pictured himself traveling at the speed of light and "seeing" clocks tick differently depending on the motion. To preserve the speed of light, relativity alters the passage of time. Thus, time became relative, and eventually space merged with time into the concept of spacetime.
The math of Special Relativity predicts that objects become thinner in the direction of motion and that at light speed, time stops altogether. These things have never been observed, yet the equations suggest them. Can mathematics alone create physical reality? The answer lies in the concept of time.
Clocks and Time
Einstein treated clocks and time as if they were the same thing. They are not. Clocks are physical devices, designed by us, ticking at rates that vary with the environment. Time, in contrast, is not a thing. Time is the duration of motion as measured by clocks.
We use clocks to measure the speed of light, and Einstein used the speed of light to measure time. This circular logic conceals the profound truth: time is not real, but motion is. Relativity works because it compensates for the ticking rate of clocks in different environments. But that's not proof that time itself changes. It's proof that clocks do.
Moving Beyond Relativity
Relativity has served us beautifully, but it's not the final word. Its foundation rests on confusing clocks with time and treating numbers as if they were reality. Time cannot be bent, stretched, or dilated because time is not a physical thing. Clocks convert the motion of things into time.
The next generation of physics must move beyond relativity to a framework that unites quantum mechanics and classical mechanics by defining time as a property of motion. The revolution in science will not come from adjusting time to fit the math. It will come from finally defining time.
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