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{{Infobox scientist
| name = Erich Wanek
| image = Erich Wanek 756.jpg
| alt = Erich Wanek
| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|09|09|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Vienna, Austria
| death_date = {{death date and age|2010|12|10|1926|9|9}}
| death_place = Salzburg, Austria
| fields = [[Business manager]]
| residence = Salzburg, Austria
| nationality = Austrian
| known_for = [[Special Relativity]], [[Particlewave]]
}}

'''Erich Wanek''' (9 September 1926 – 10 December 2010) was an Austrian businessman and amateur physicist who was known as a critic of the [[Special Relativity|special theory of relativity]] and for proposing a "[[Particlewave|particlewave]]" model of light and matter waves.

==Biography==
Wanek was born on 9 September 1926 in Vienna, Austria. He completed a commercial academy with distinction in 1944 and went on to study commercial science at the University of World Trade in Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1948. From 1947 to 1982 he managed the "Wanek &amp; Burger" leather goods factory, and he was active in the Salzburg Chamber of Commerce. He settled in Salzburg in 1948 and later served as a city councillor for the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) from 1987 to 1992. A practising Catholic, he was a member of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Wanek died in Salzburg on 10 December 2010.

==Work==
Wanek developed an early interest in the critical examination of modern mathematical physics, and in particular questioned the [[Special Relativity|special theory of relativity]] and the nature of light. He found it difficult to accept the relativistic claim that clocks change their rate through relative motion alone. Beginning in the late 1950s he published articles in the journal ''Wissen im Werden'' concerning what he regarded as pitfalls of special relativity and his idea of a "particlewave". In 1962 he combined these arguments in the paper "Paradoxien der Relativitätstheorie und deren Überwindung durch das Modell einer Teilchenwelle", published in Karl Sapper's edited collection ''Kritik und Fortbildung der Relativitätstheorie'', Band 2 (Graz, 1962).

In his later years he returned to these questions in greater depth, presenting a "train paradox" arguing that clock readings could depend on the direction of motion, and carrying out prism and laser experiments intended to detect anisotropy in the propagation of light. He was a longstanding and active member of the Society for the Advancement of Scientific Physics (Gesellschaft zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Physik) until its dissolution in 2010.

==Honors==
* 1975 – Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria
* 1976 – Silver Medal of the Chamber of Commerce
* 1989 – Honorary Cup of the Chamber of Commerce
* 1997 – Gold Insignia of the Rupertus and Virgil Order
* 2005 – "Social Oscar" of Pro Mente Salzburg

==Abstracts==

* 2010 - "[[Laser Experiment with Prisms]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_5886.pdf Read in full])
* 2010 - "[[A New Train Paradox: Can Clock Time Depend on the Direction of Motion?]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_5279.pdf Read in full])
* 2010 - "[[Prism Experiments with Laser Beams 2009 ? 2010 Shift of the Light-Point on Certain Days Report and Proposal for Further Experiments]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_5273.pdf Read in full])
* 2009 - "[[The "Mass" of a Photon only an Expression of its Helical Configuration?]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_3956.pdf Read in full])
* 2008 - "[[The Particlewave: A New Model for Light and the Matter Waves]]"
* 2007 - "[[Laser-Experimente zur Festellung der Lichtbewegung]]"
* 2006 - "[[Challenging Special Relativity: A New Train Paradox]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_2008.pdf Read in full])
* 2006 - "[[ Die Richtungsabh?ngigkeit der Uhren nach der Relativit?tstheorie (ein Zug-Paradoxon)


]]"
* 2005 - "[[Paradoxe Relativit]]" ([http://www.naturalphilosophy.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_3955.pdf Read in full])
* 1962 - "[[Paradoxien der Relativit?tstheorie und deren ?berwindung durch das Modell einer Teilchenwelle]]"

==External links==
* [https://wiki.sn.at/wiki/Erich_Wanek Erich Wanek] in the Salzburgwiki

[[Category:Scientist|Wanek Erich]]
[[Category:Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists]]