View source for Cynthia Kolb Whitney

{{Infobox scientist
| name = Cynthia Kolb Whitney
| image = Cynthia Kolb Whitney 226.jpg
| alt = Cynthia Kolb Whitney
| birth_date = 1941
| nationality = American
| fields = [[Physics]], [[Electrodynamics]]
| workplaces = Charles Stark Draper Laboratory; [[Tufts University]]; Space Time Analyses, Ltd.
| alma_mater = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| known_for = Editor of ''[[Galilean Electrodynamics]]''; criticism of [[special relativity]]; algebraic chemistry
}}

'''Cynthia Kolb Whitney''' (born 1941) is an American physicist, editor and dissident-science author. She is best known as the longtime Editor and Publisher of the alternative-physics journal ''[[Galilean Electrodynamics]]'', a role she held from 1997, and as an editor of the Proceedings of the [[Natural Philosophy Alliance]] (now the [[John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society]]), of which she has served as Chief Scientist. Trained in physics and mathematical physics at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], she developed a body of work critical of mainstream twentieth-century physics, particularly [[special relativity]], and proposed alternative treatments of electrodynamics, quantum mechanics and chemistry that lie outside the scientific mainstream.

==Biography==

===Early life and education===

Whitney was born in 1941. She has described her father as a self-educated chemist who rose to a senior position at the Celanese Corporation of America, and her mother as an artist who had studied at the Maryland Institute of Art. She became interested in science as a high-school student in the late 1950s, a period she has credited to the educational reforms that followed the launch of ''[[Sputnik]]''.

She was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned three degrees: a Bachelor of Science (S.B.) in physics, with a thesis in computational chemistry; a Master of Science (S.M.) in electrical engineering, with a thesis in statistical communication theory; and a Ph.D. in mathematical physics, with a thesis in [[special relativity]] theory.

===Career===

In 1967, Whitney took her first permanent position at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory (then part of MIT), where she worked in support of the [[Apollo program]]. There she was assigned to work on the ring laser gyroscope, a device based on the [[Sagnac effect]]. According to her own account, her efforts to reconcile the behavior of the gyroscope with special relativity planted a lasting doubt in her mind about the theory, and marked the beginning of her long move toward dissident physics.

Over her career she worked in the American defense industry, supervised engineering thesis students at MIT, and served as a Visiting Industry Professor in the Electro-Optics Technology Center at [[Tufts University]]. She has variously described her professional roles as including optical engineer, atmospheric scientist, industrial engineer, control-theory engineer and computational chemist.

In 1997 she was invited to take over as Editor of ''[[Galilean Electrodynamics]]'', a small journal devoted to alternative treatments of relativity and electromagnetism, published through Space Time Analyses, Ltd. (ISSN 1047-4811). In 2004 she also began editing and publishing the Proceedings of the [[Natural Philosophy Alliance]], the organization that later became the [[John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society]], where she served as Chief Scientist.

==Scientific contributions==

Whitney's work centers on a critique of what she regards as unnecessarily limiting assumptions adopted by physics in the early twentieth century, and on developing classical alternatives to them. Her ideas are not accepted within mainstream physics.

A recurring theme in her work is the finite speed of signal propagation and its consequences. Inspired in the late 1970s by an exhibit showing a spiral pattern forming in a spinning fluid, she proposed that a finite speed of gravity propagation could account for the spiral structure of galaxies, modeling barred-spiral and disc galaxies as arising from a two-body background potential field. She was unable to publish this work in mainstream astrophysics journals.

In the domain of electrodynamics she examined the [[Liénard–Wiechert potential]]s and fields, arguing that the standard treatment rests on a nineteenth-century assumption about the speed of light. She proposed a model in which light-signal propagation occurs in two stages, expansion from the source followed by contraction to the receiver, with the leading or trailing tip of the signal momentarily traveling at twice the conventional speed of light; she argued that this reproduces the mathematics demanded by the [[Sagnac effect]] and yields a "revised and extended" special relativity.

In quantum mechanics she argued that [[Planck constant|Planck's constant]] need not be regarded as an independent constant of nature, proposing instead that it results from a balance between radiation damping and an energy-gain mechanism produced by signal-propagation delay. She extended these ideas to chemistry in a program she called "algebraic chemistry," which she applied to the pattern of ionization potentials of the elements, and she also published on the [[neutron]] in the ''Hadronic Journal''.

==Selected publications==

Whitney is the author of the book ''Minimum Contradictions Everything'' (2009) and an editor of ''The Theory of Density'' (with Mohammad Javanshiry and Anna Kalapurakkal). She has published numerous papers in alternative-physics venues including ''[[Galilean Electrodynamics]]'', ''Physics Essays'', the ''Hadronic Journal'' and the Proceedings of the [[Natural Philosophy Alliance]].

==Abstracts==

* 2013 - "[[How Electrodynamics with Statistical Mechanics
Can Imply Gravitation]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_7185.pdf Read in full])
* 2013 - "[[How Electrodynamics with Statistical Mechanics Can Imply Gravitation]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_7186.pdf Read in full])
* 2013 - "[[Lessons from the Field: The 2013 John Chappell Memorial Lecture
]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_7183.pdf Read in full])
* 2012 - "[[About the Arrow of Time]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_6629.pdf Read in full])
* 2011 - "[[A New Theory for Important New Technologies]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_6111.pdf Read in full])
* 2010 - "[[Maxwell Theory and Galilean Relativity]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_5200.pdf Read in full])
* 2009 - "[[Maxwell's Maximum]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_1761.pdf Read in full])
* 2008 - "[[Electric and Magnetic Fields According to Hermann Minkowski]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_94.pdf Read in full])
* 2008 - "[[Mainstreaming: A Personal Progress Report]]"
* 2008 - "[[The Neutron: A Challenge for Post-Maxwell Physics]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron Read in full])
* 2008 - "[[Physics as a Building Project in Need of Design Review]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_66.pdf Read in full])
* 2007 - "[[Relativistic Dynamics in Basic Chemistry]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics Read in full])
* 2007 - "[[On the Visual Images that Atoms Create ]]"
* 2007 - "[[On the Visual Images that Galaxies Create ]]"
* 2006 - "[[?Algebraic Chemistry? Based on a ?PIRT?]]" ([http://www.physicsfoundations.org/PIRT_X/papers/WHITNEY%20PAPER%202006.pdf Read in full])
* 2006 - "[[Algebraic Chemistry: Parts I-V]]" ([http://books.google.com/books?id=r4zlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=Algebraic+Chemistry:+Parts+I-V&source=bl&ots=hxve_XZyRJ&sig=g-ZuZz5jsvjr4orCWefr3qL_XgI&hl=en&ei=cCxsTZXCHsiRgQeForXMCg&sa=X&oi=book_r Read in full])
* 2006 - "[[On What Electromagnetic Systems Can Feel]]"
* 2006 - "[[Essentials on Special Relativity Theory]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity Read in full])
* 2006 - "[[On What Optical Systems Can See]]"
* 2005 - "[[GRT?s ?Flat Spot?]]"
* 2005 - "[[Planck's Constant: A Yin/Yang Balance]]"
* 2005 - "[[SRT?s ?Rosetta Stone?]]"
* 2004 - "[[An Astronomy Model within an Infinite Universe]]" ([http://www.eitgaastra.nl/timesgr/part5/2.html Read in full])
* 2004 - "[[This is NOT Einstein's Postulate]]"
* 2003 - "[[Editorial Comments (of NPA Conference #10 Proceedings)]]" ([http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/energy_technology/ Read in full])
* 2003 - "[[Spectroscopy's 'Relativistic' Keystone]]" ([http://ijahsp.nova.edu/articles/Vol8Num4/holub_8_4.htm Read in full])
* 2002 - "[[Do Atoms Really Have 'States'?]]"
* 2000 - "[[Begging the Questions ]]" ([http://www.padrak.com/ine/ Read in full])
* 2000 - "[[General Considerations about Mass Variation]]"
* 1998 - "[[Distinct Questions in Relativity Theory]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%C3%A9nard%E2%80%93Wiechert_potential Read in full])
* 1998 - "[[SRT: About That Light in the Beginning]]"
* 1997 - "[['Light' is the Subject, not the Object!]]"
* 1997 - "[[Finding Absolution for Special Relativity Theory - Part III]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_special_relativity Read in full])
* 1997 - "[[A Quantum of Light Shed on Classical Potentials and Fields]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_616.pdf Read in full])
* 1997 - "[[The Twins, the Mesons, and the Paradox]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_603.pdf Read in full])
* 1996 - "[[Finding Absolution for Special Relativity Theory - Part I]]" ([ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagnac_effect Read in full])
* 1996 - "[[Finding Absolution for Special Relativity Theory - Part II]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_of_special_relativity Read in full])
* 1995 - "[[How Can Spirals Persist?]]"
* 1994 - "[[Special Relativity Theory Aberrated]]" ([http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/44457625/Einsteins-Principle-of-Relativity-and-Doppler-Shift Read in full])
* 1993 - "[[Discussion Between C. K. Whitney and S. Marinov on Silvertooth's Experiment]]"
* 1992 - "[[What's Wrong With Standard Relativistic Fields?]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%C3%A9nard%E2%80%93Wiechert_potential Read in full])
* 1992 - "[[A New Michelson-Morley Experiment]]" ([http://physicsessays.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=PHESEM000005000001000082000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=Yes Read in full])
* 1991 - "[[A Gedanken Experiment With Relativistic Fields

  ]]"
* 1990 - "[[If Sagnac and Michelson-Gale, Why Not Michelson-Morley?]]" ([http://renshaw.teleinc.com/papers/fizeau/fizeau.stm Read in full])
* 1989 - "[[Inner Products in Relativistic Field Theory]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%C3%A9nard%E2%80%93Wiechert_potential Read in full])
* 1989 - "[[On The Properties of Retarded Coordinates]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%C3%A9nard%E2%80%93Wiechert_potential Read in full])
* 1989 - "[[Radiative Reaction in Classical Electrodynamics]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham%E2%80%93Lorentz_force Read in full])
* 1989 - "[[Radiative Reaction on Fields]]" ([http://physics.fullerton.edu/~jimw/general/radreact/ Read in full])
* 1988 - "[[Harmonics in the Hydrogen Atom]]" ([http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Physics-Max-Planck.htm Read in full])
* 1988 - "[[Manifest Covariance in Relativistic Potential Theory]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li%C3%A9nard%E2%80%93Wiechert_potential Read in full])
* 1988 - "[[Multiple States in the Hydrogen Atom]]" ([http://books.google.com/books?id=zzxLTIljQB4C&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=quantum+hypothesis,+Planck%27s+constant&source=bl&ots=w9hRJGnZnK&sig=YD8AgKfZc4JpaqGkFxxNOBOUrn4&hl=en&ei=c0JsTcKDLo-dgQfd7-yHBA&sa=X&oi Read in full])
* 1988 - "[[A New Perspective on the Hydrogen Atom]]" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_constant Read in full])
* 1987 - "[[Distribution of Stars as Test Particles in a Two-Body Background Field]]"
* 1986 - "[[Compressible Fluid Dynamics Study]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_6199.pdf Read in full])

==Books==

* 2009 - "[[Minimum Contradictions Everything]]"
* 2004 - "[[Proceedings of the NPA, Volume 1]]" ([http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/npa-2004-spring-proceedings/10797686?productTrackingContext=product_view/recently_viewed/left/2 Read in full])

==External links==

* [https://einsteinwrong.com/site/dr-cynthia-whitney/ Dr. Cynthia Whitney profile at einsteinwrong.com]
* [https://www.galilean-electrodynamics.com/ ''Galilean Electrodynamics'' journal]
* [https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n88604184.html Library of Congress authority record: Whitney, Cynthia Kolb, 1941-]
* [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2635676/ "Closing in on Chemical Bonds by Opening up Relativity Theory" (PMC)]

[[Category:Scientist|Whitney Cynthia]]