Revised Theory of Transient Mass Fluctuations

Several publications during the last 10 years by Woodward and colleagues have: (1) indicated a theory based on special relativity, that predicted transient mass fluctuations; (2) cited specific embodiments where a net average force would be present; (3) suggested a few ways that this theory might be tested in the laboratory; and (4) reported such test results incorporating these embodiments, which are interpreted to support theory (1) to (3) above. In this paper we show that: (1) the average force predicted by Woodward's theory occurred only because of a neglected term in a product derivative, and that when the neglected term is correctly returned, the average force identically vanishes; (2) this vanishment of the average force occurs for arbitrary forcing functions, not just the sinusoidal one considered by Woodward; (3) the transient mass fluctuation, predicted by Woodward, was developed in a theory which neglected local gravitational forces which are several dozen orders of magnitude greater; (4) additionally considering the dominant local gravitational forces produces a vastly smaller transient mass fluctuation; (5) several inconsistencies between Woodward's referents and the development of his wave equation lead to a formulation that does not follow from the antecedents even in the absence of the demonstrations (1) to (4) above; (6) there is an alternate interpretation of the Woodward/Mahood experiments that can entirely explain the findings in terms of force contributions due to time varying thermal expansion, without invoking any general relativistic effects; and (7) a laboratory demonstration of the alternate interpretation produced 100 times the Woodward effect without resort to non-Newtonian explanations