On the Bondgraphic Power Postulate and its Role
in Interpreting the 1905 and 1915 Relativity Theories
Abstract
Since their official birth on April 24, 1959, bondgraphs evolved to become one
of the most effective and most elegant tools for modeling system dynamics. The
unifying attitude of bondgraphs, or BGs for short, towards systems, enables
model builders to connect system components from different physical domains
using the same set of bondgraphic elements. It was this unifying attitude
that furnished the impetus for this work that investigates the possibility of
applying BGs to Einstein's standard theories of relativity, thus extending
the BG approach of modeling to relativistic dynamics. To this end, a new
formulation of the bondgraphic power postulate that is built using four-vector
efforts and flows is developed, with a brief introduction to tensor calculus.
Then special relativistic particle-mechanics and electro-dynamics (via a one
particle system) are investigated, and the bondgraphic interpretations for
both are also provided. Finally, we provide Einstein's gravitational field
equations, a bondgraphic interpretation of them, and the energetic problems in
general relativity with suggestions to solutions.
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(133 pages, 4,342,061 bytes, pdf)
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Last modified: July 18, 2005 -- © François Cellier