Steven Bryant

Steven Bryant
Residence	El Cerrito, CA, United States
Nationality	USA
Alma mater	San Diego State University, University of San Diego
Known for	Modern Mechanics, the Spherical Wave Proof critique, Disruptive
Scientific career
Fields	Physics, Computer science, Business

Steven B. Bryant is an American researcher and technology executive known for a mathematical critique of the derivations underlying special relativity, and for the alternative framework he calls Modern Mechanics (or Modern Classical Mechanics).

His central technical claim concerns Einstein's Spherical Wave Proof. Bryant argues that the proof establishes only that the transformed coordinates satisfy the general equation of a sphere, not that they lie on the same sphere — and that when the radii are checked, the transformed points turn out to lie on multiple spheres rather than one. Since the purpose of the proof is to establish the relationship between the constancy of the speed of light and the principle of relativity, he concludes that the relationship is not established.

His positive proposal turns on a distinction he says relativity conflates: length versus wavelength. On his account time dilation, length contraction and the twin paradox are all artefacts of using a length-based model to interpret wavelength-based observations, and he reports that equations built on the distinction fit the Michelson-Morley and Ives-Stilwell results substantially more closely than the Einstein-Lorentz equations do.

Bryant was a subject matter leader in the relativity community of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, has spoken at AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and NPA conferences at universities across the United States, and set out his framework for a general readership in Disruptive: Rewriting the Rules of Physics (2016).

Career

Bryant is an experienced business executive. He began his career in technology, joining Science Applications International Corporation’s software engineering team after completing a BS in Computer Science from San Diego State University. After completing his MBA from the University of San Diego, Steven then joined Accenture where he was able to pursue mastery in two areas: Technology and Business. Bryant remained in consulting until joining Wells Fargo as a Senior Vice President leading a strategic global initiative; he has more recently worked in artificial-intelligence strategy and governance.

He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and daughter, and mentors teens and adults.

He is not a physicist by training, and does not present himself as one; his argument is that the problems he identifies are mathematical and definitional rather than experimental, and can therefore be checked by anyone willing to follow the derivations.

Critique of special relativity

The Spherical Wave Proof

Einstein asserts in each of his derivations that if an electromagnetic wave propagates as a sphere in system K, the transformed wave is also a sphere in system K′. Bryant's paper "The Failure of the Einstein-Lorentz Spherical Wave Proof" (2010) turns on the definition of a sphere, which requires two conditions: that the points satisfy the sphere equation, and that they all lie at the same radius from the same centre.

Einstein's proof, Bryant argues, demonstrates only the first. The transformed values conform to the general equation of a sphere in K′, but the proof never validates that they belong to a single sphere — and on checking, the transformed points have different radii, placing them on multiple spheres. Using the sphere equation alone therefore yields a false positive: the proof appears to pass when it has failed.

The relativistic hypercone

Defenders of the 1905 derivation have replied that the transformed points form a hypercone, the construction Einstein introduced in 1922. In "Failure of the Relativistic Hypercone" (2011), written with Glenn Borchardt, Bryant argues that this defence fails on dimensional grounds: Einstein defines light-time l = ct and uses it in place of time t, but a velocity multiplied by a time is a distance. Treating one quantity as both a time and a distance — a type mismatch of the kind that destroyed the Mars Climate Orbiter — invalidates the hypercone and the conclusions drawn from it. The authors present this as an instance of the objectification of time, time being itself a measure of motion.

Length, wavelength and the twin paradox

Bryant's treatment of the twin paradox in "The Twin Paradox: Why it is Required by Relativity" (2011) is unusual in rejecting both standard positions.

Against relativity's critics, he argues that treating the paradox as self-evidently fatal is "inherently weak," because such arguments concede that all the underlying assumptions, mathematics and logic leading up to the paradox are correct. Against relativity's defenders, he notes that the customary appeal to acceleration is interpretive rather than derived: Einstein does not treat acceleration as a variable in developing the theory, so the explanation is imported rather than obtained from it.

His own account is that the paradox is required by relativity, and arises from using a length-based model to interpret wavelength-based observations. Correctly using wavelength-based equations for wavelength-based observations, he argues, removes time dilation, length contraction and the paradox together.

Experimental re-analysis

Bryant has re-examined the classic experiments on the same basis, reporting in "Revisiting the Michelson-Morley Experiment Reveals Earth Orbit Velocity of 30 km/s" (2008) that the Michelson-Morley data, read through his equations, yield an Earth orbital velocity of about 30 km/s, and in "Revisiting the Ives-Stillwell Experiment" (2008) that the Ives-Stilwell result admits a comparable re-reading. He claims better than one hundred times the accuracy of the Einstein-Lorentz equations in these cases.

Modern Mechanics

The framework Bryant builds from these results is Modern Mechanics, also called Modern Classical Mechanics: a unified model that distinguishes length from wavelength and, he argues, reproduces the experimental record without time dilation, length contraction or the twin paradox. He introduced an earlier version as the "Physics 3.0" framework in 2010.

Disruptive (2016)

Disruptive: Rewriting the Rules of Physics was published by Infinite Circle Publishing on 26 January 2016 (328 pages; paperback ISBN 978-0-9962409-0-1, hardcover ISBN 978-0-9962409-1-8), edited by Grant Dexter and illustrated by Sarah Bryant-Cole. It presents Modern Mechanics for a general readership and sets out where and why Bryant holds Einstein's theory went wrong — arguing that relativity "was never correct in the first place," that Modern Mechanics covers ground currently requiring three separate theories (classical mechanics, relativity and quantum mechanics), and that the framework permits faster-than-light travel and communication.

CNPS talks

He has presented in the CNPS online seminar series:

• "Disruptive: Rewriting the Rules of Physics with Steven Bryant" (28 August 2021)

Abstracts

• 2011 - "Failure of the Relativistic Hypercone" (Read in full)
• 2011 - "The Twin Paradox: Why it is Required by Relativity" (Read in full)
• 2010 - "The Failure of the Einstein-Lorentz Spherical Wave Proof" (Read in full)
• 2010 - "Introducing the Physics 3.0 Framework"
• 2008 - "Bi-Directional Wavelength in Moving Systems"
• 2008 - "Comparative Analysis of the Model of Complete and Incomplete Coordinate Systems"
• 2008 - "Namespace Analysis in Evaluating the Validity of the Einstein-Lorentz Transformation Equations"
• 2008 - "Revisiting the Ives-Stillwell Experiment"
• 2008 - "Revisiting the Michelson-Morley Experiment Reveals Earth Orbit Velocity of 30 km/s"
• 2007 - "A Brute-Force Challenge to Einstein's 1905 Derivation Reveals a Mathematical Inconsistency in the SRT Time Transformation Equation "

Books

• 2016 - "Disruptive: Rewriting the Rules of Physics" (Read in full)

Media

• 2010 - Strategic Approaches To Facilitate Scientific Change (Video Lecture)
• 2009 - Physics 3.0: Understanding the Foundational Concepts and Mathematics of the Next Physics Revolution (Video Lecture)

See also

• Disruptive: Rewriting the Rules of Physics
• Modern Mechanics
• Glenn Borchardt — co-author on the hypercone paper
• Special relativity
• Natural Philosophy Alliance

External links

• RelativityChallenge.com — his papers and early research
• StevenBBryant.com — his blog and book