A New Ship for Galileo - Abstract

A New Ship for Galileo presents a causal reformulation of modern physics grounded in a systematic re-examination of classical electrodynamics and its overlooked implications for the principle of relativity. The aim of the work is not to challenge the empirical achievements of twentieth-century physics, but to reinterpret them within an elementary, force-based framework capable of restoring physical causality and conceptual intelligibility where geometric and perspectival explanations have become dominant. The analysis begins with a critical reassessment of the extension of Galilean relativity in Einstein’s formulation, focusing on a key implicit assumption: the equivalence of inertial frames independently of the genesis of motion. Through a family of structured thought experiments (the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta systems), classical electrodynamics is shown to generate real, motion-dependent effects even in closed systems and at non-relativistic velocities. These effects challenge the standard identification between active descriptions (a body in motion) and passive descriptions (a change of reference frame), an identification that underlies the conventional relativistic interpretation. At the core of the work lies the derivation and physical interpretation of a residual transverse force arising from the competition between Coulomb interaction and the magnetic component of the Lorentz force. Historically associated with FitzGerald, this force is treated here as a real and causal interaction rather than as a perspectival or kinematical artifact. The corresponding FitzGerald factor,ϕ=1−v2/c2,emerges as a physical modifier of interactions and internal structures of matter in motion. Within this framework, relativistic phenomena such as length contraction, time dilation, and electromagnetic symmetries are reinterpreted as consequences of material deformation and interaction anisotropy, not as manifestations of spacetime geometry. The causal approach is further extended to quantum and gravitational domains. Interference phenomena, including the double-slit experiment and the “one photon at a time” regime, are reclassified as field–apparatus effects, eliminating wave–particle dualism and measurement paradoxes without invoking observer-dependent ontology. Gravitational redshift is interpreted as a structural modification of atomic processes in a field gradient, preserving quantitative predictions while abandoning time dilation as a fundamental explanation. Classical anomalies traditionally attributed to spacetime curvature, such as the advance of Mercury’s perihelion, are derived through anisotropic force corrections without tensor calculus, while black holes are reinterpreted as limiting field configurations devoid of geometric singularities and information paradoxes. This Zenodo record hosts the structured abstract, the introductory preface, and the main article as a single scientific act, identified by a unique DOI. Together, these components constitute the first complete and citable exposition of the conceptual framework developed in A New Ship for Galileo, advocating a Galilean refoundation of physics in which mathematics resumes its role as a descriptive tool rather than an ontological substitute, and classical electrodynamics recovers a unifying explanatory power across relativistic and quantum phenomena.