Jesse Alama:

               Understanding relativity theory through logic

                            Abstract


For several years, Istvan Nemeti and his colleagues have analyzed the
logical structure of Einstein's theory of special relativity.  The
goal of this research program is to understand precisely the
predictions of special relativity by designing first-order theories
whose axioms capture relativistic assumptions and analyzing their
logical structure.  In my talk I will present a sample of Nemeti's
work by describing an analysis of the logical relations among three
famous predictions of relativity: moving clocks slow down, moving
objects shrink, and moving clocks get out of synchronism.