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Herbert Dingle (1890–1978) was an English astronomer and president of the Royal Astronomical Society. He is best-known for his claim to have found an inconsistency in the theory of special relativity.

Born in 1890, Dingle was educated at Plymouth Science, Art and Technical Schools and Imperial College, London. He was a member of the British government eclipse expeditions of 1927 and 1932; and became Professor of Natural Philosophy, Imperial College in 1938, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University College London in 1946–1955 and President of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1951–1953. Appointed Professor Emeritus of History and Philosophy of Science in 1955, he died in 1978.

Originally a supporter of Einstein's work on the theory of relativity and an author of the textbook Relativity for All (1922), Dingle came to doubt its foundations after reading an account of the twin paradox. According to this, a clock that 'moves' away from another 'stationary' clock and then returns, will show that less time has elapsed. Dingle claimed that Einstein's results were inconsistent with the 'Principle of Relativity'. However, other experts — notably the astrophysicist Sir William H. McCrea — disagreed. The arguments between Dingle and McCrea in Nature are well-known A recent biographical sketch of McCrea has labeled these friendly but heated exchanges as "part of the legend of the early days of relativity".

As an article about Dingle's "rebellion" argues, his objections were largely philosophical but this was not well understood. Most physicists were dismissive about his claims and at this time the controversy has largely been forgotten.

References

1. Dingle, H. (October 14 1967). "The Case against Special Relativity". Nature: 119. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. McCrea, W.H. (October 14 1967). "Why The Special Theory of Relativity is Correct". Nature: 122. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. Williams, Iwan (2003). McCartney, Mark and Whitaker, Andrew (ed.). Physicists of Ireland: Passion and Precision. IOP Publishing Ltd. pp. p. 252. ISBN 0750308664. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
4. Chang, H. "A Misunderstood Rebellion: The Twin-Paradox Controversy and Herbert Dingle's Vision Of Science", Studies In History and Philosophy of Science, Vol 24 (1993), pp 741-790

External links

• "Science at the Crossroads" by Herbert Dingle.
• "Challenging Einstein's Special Relativity: Herbert Dingle — Science at the Crossroads" This article links two PDF files: The body and the appendices of Herbert Dingle's book "Science at the Crossroads".
• "Cosmology: Methodological Debates in the 1930s and 1940s"from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• "Symmetrical Experiments to Test the Clock Paradox (PDF file)" Published in Physics and Modern Topics in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering 1999.

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