Abstract
We explore whether our interpretation of special relativity - according to which we consider space and time as space-time equipped with geometric properties - leads to conclusions that go beyond those drawn directly from the equations of special relativity. To do so, we develop a method that allows us to determine the ratio of the lengths of any two polygonal time-like world lines both connecting the same two events. It turns out that all such world lines have the same length, regardless of the number of time units counted along each of them, whereas at the same time the mean lengths of the time units are different if their numbers are different. Therefore, if different numbers of time units are counted, this cannot have a geometric cause.
Frank Ullmann