*... like the causes of the sun's changing path across the sky were obvious once the Copernican view was understood. By "obvious" we do not mean that an explanation is not needed to understand how consequences of the quantum medium combine to cause the observed constant speed of light for all observers, just as an explanation is helpful to understand how the consequences of Earth's rotation, revolution, and tilted axis combine to cause the sun's changing path across the sky. The Copernican view also made it obvious that the geocentric view was a misleading oversimplification of reality. Similarly, the quantum medium view shows that relativity theory is an oversimplification of nature.

1. The observed constant speed of light in all inertial reference frames. This constancy of the speed of light is the assumption underlying relativity theory that results in the theory's strange view of space, time, and mass. Relativity theory provides no explanation for this phenomenon. Few people, outside of experts in relativity theory, realize that the entire edifice of the theory rests on this questionable assumption that photons always have the same speed through every reference frame, regardless of the velocities of the reference frames. Conventional physics theory cannot explain how this is possible.
Quick Explanation: This phenomenon is the result of the standards of time and distance in every inertial reference frame being different due to the different velocity of each reference frame through the medium and the physical effects in a body or system caused by its motion through the medium. The combination of distance, time, clock asynchronization, and assumed constant speed of light in every reference frame always results in the same, isotropic speed of light. The fact that these logical consequences of the medium combine to create the same observed speed of light in every inertial frame (in accordance with experimental evidence) is a powerful indication that the quantum medium view is correct.

2. Inertia (i.e. the resistance of any body to having its velocity changed). Relativity theory does not explain this phenomenon.
Quick Explanation: All bodies have large internal energies (as Einstein's E=m·c² makes clear) due to very large numbers of photons and other quanta of energy moving within the bodies. When a body is in motion through the quantum medium, more of the body's quanta of energy are moving in the direction of the body's motion through the medium and fewer are moving in the opposite direction, and there is a net blueshift of the internal energy. Every change in the body's velocity requires a corresponding shift of the balance of this internal energy of the body, and this shift requires a force and work, creating the appearance of the body's "inertia."

3. Doppler Shift in the color of light from a source when the observer's velocity toward or away from the source changes. There is no reason for this observed Doppler shift according to relativity theory. The wavelength of the photons emitted by the source is not affected by a change the observer's velocity, and the speed of the photons relative to the observer does not change according to relativity theory. Therefore, there is no logical basis for explaining the observed Doppler shift.
Quick Explanation: In the quantum medium view, changing the observer's motion toward or away from the source changes the speed of the photons relative to the observer and this change in the velocity of the photons relative to the observer easily explains the observed Doppler shift in the color of the light.

4. Time Dilation (e.g. the slowing of a clock or any other physical process when the velocity of the observer relative to the clock or process is increased). An example of this phenomenon is the slowing and speeding up of a pulsar as an observer's velocity away from the pulsar changes due to Earth's rotation and revolution. Special relativity predicts this change in pulsar rate, but provides no physical causes which explain the phenomenon.
Quick Explanation: In the quantum medium view, Earth's rotation and revolution constantly change the observer's velocity through the quantum medium, which changes the observer's standard of time, thereby creating the appearance of changes in the pulsar's pulse rate.

5. Length Contraction (e.g. the observed foreshortening of a body when the observer's velocity relative to the body is increased). In John Bell's Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics Bell discusses a controversy at CERN regarding the contraction of a thread stretched between two hypothetical spaceships which accelerate at the same time and with the same acceleration in the reference frame of an observer. The question, on which the physics community at CERN was about equally divided, is "Will the thread break as the spaceships gradually accelerate?" The thread will break, but relativity theory cannot explain why.
Quick Explanation: In the quantum medium view the thread will always break, regardless of the velocity of the spaceships through the quantum medium prior to acceleration. The answer is not simple and it indicates that relativity theory's implication that the thread will break because it will contract due to the relative velocity between the thread and the observer is a misleading, oversimplification.

6. Mass Increase (e.g. the observed increase in mass of a body when the observer's velocity relative to the body is increased). An example is the increase in mass of particles accelerated to nearly the speed of light. Special relativity accurately predicts this phenomenon but attributes it to the relative motion between the particles and the observer. The theory cannot explain why changing an observer's motion relative to a particle or other body should change the mass of the body. The theory leads to the belief that the body has no true, absolute mass because observers in different reference frames cannot agree on the mass.
Quick Explanation: In the quantum medium view, observers in different reference frames do agree on a body's mass, and it becomes obvious that a body's mass increases as its velocity through the medium increases because there is a net blueshift of the great number of quanta of energy moving within the body. It also becomes obvious why relativity theory causes the disagreement among the observers and why the assumptions of relativity theory result in the observed relativistic increase in mass of a body -- even when the body's velocity through the medium is decreased (but increased relative to the observer) and there is a corresponding decrease in the absolute mass of the body.