Anti-Einstein cranks
Thu, 2007-04-19 23:43
#1
Anti-Einstein cranks
Thu, 2007-04-19 23:43
#2
quote:
Was Einstein a fake?by John Farrell
There's nothing quite like Einstein and his theories of relativity to bring out the doubters, the cranks and the outright crackpots. Do they have a point? Was Einstein a fake?
If you're tired of hearing about 'Intelligent design' creationists and the court wars against Darwin's theory in the U.S., you might be surprised to learn that another pillar of modern science, Einstein and his Theory of Relativity, is under attack.
A burgeoning underground of 'dissident' scientists and self-described experts publish their theories in newsletters and blogs on the Net, exchanging ideas in a great battle against 'the temple of relativity'. According to these critics, relativity is not only wrong, it's an affront to common sense, and its creator, Albert Einstein, was no less than a cheat.
A quick glance at anti-relativity proponents and their publications reveals a plethora of alternative theories about how the universe really works – very few of them in agreement with each other. But despite their many differences, common themes among these self-described iconoclasts do emerge: resentment of academic 'elites', suspicion of the entire peer-review process in mainstream scientific journals and a deep-seated paranoia about the extent of government involvement in scientific projects.
An aethro-kinematics website (www.aethro-kinematics.com) claims to refute relativity by resurrecting Renй Descartes' theory that the Earth and all the planets are carried around the Sun by an "Aether vortex". Another site points to the work of one Stefan Marinov, a self-described dissident, who apparently threatened to immolate himself in front of the British Embassy in Vienna, Austria, because he was so incensed by the refusal of the respected journal Nature to publish his 'proofs' against relativity.
This is just a taste. A visit to Google reveals the extent of the phenomenon. Is this a new front in the war on science? Can we expect a new Discovery Institute, armed with millions of dollars from eccentric fundamentalists, spoiling for a rematch in school boards across the U.S. — this time attacking Einstein and not Darwin?
Hopefully not, according to Bryan Gaensler, a professor of physics at the University of Sydney. "The anti-relativity cranks are not nearly as well-organised as the creationists. Probably none of them would get along well enough to form a serious threat to science."
Having said that, he adds, "there has just begun a new series of conferences, held by anti-relativity cranks, called 'Crisis in Cosmology'. I think the first one was held in Spain and they're planning another. It looks exactly like a legitimate scientific conference, with the difference that everyone delivering a talk there is insane."
Read it [url=http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1162]here.[/url]
Fri, 2007-04-20 03:22
#3
Well there is a bit of an issue with Einstein. For one, he even contradicted his own theories by the end of his life, at one point saying the 'cosmological constant' which was essentially a filler for the unexplained was the greatest regret of his life.
He also denied the possibility of Quantum Physics saying "God does not play dice".
However, these are minor issues to the overall scheme of things, physisists still use much of his theorum and have built and improved on it.
These Quacks want to deny reality, let them.
Fri, 2007-04-20 04:06
#4
The biggest thing that gets the cranks going is when you mention the Lorentz transformations and how Maxwell's Equations require them.
That REALLY seems to push their buttons, because they practically squint their eyes, hop up and down, and have fits over the idea.
(To clarify: If I stand here and you stand somewhere else, and we're moving with respect to each other, then if I hold a ball and drop it, and it comes back up to me, we can each describe what's going on with a set of mathematical operations collectively called "Galilean Transformations", which allow us to describe the same physical situation.
It turns out that if I hold an electric charge in my hand, and we are moving with respect to each other, those transformations will not work. You need the "Lorentz Transformations", which actually reduce to the Galilean limit under certain conditions. This seems to drive the cranks nuts because Einstein was the one that showed that you can't use the Galilean Transformations if there's no ether.)
As for Einstein being wrong? So was Niels Bohr. Did you know that Niels Bohr was wrong about some theories of quantum mechanics? [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img]
Fri, 2007-04-20 05:33
#5
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are probably the two mest tested theories out there, and every test ever conducted thus far is in agreemant with the theory - even though the theories disagree in predictions for things like black holes. Experiments include Pound-Rebka, Stern Gerlach, observations of the Cosmic microwave background, etc etc etc.
To be fair though, I don't think many theoretical physicists believe relativity and quantum physics are the fundamental truth. They're perceived as low-energy limits of a more fundamental theory, sort of like newtonian mechanics was.
Quelar, you seem to have misinterpreted some things you have read. With respect to Einstein and the cosmological constant, he's the one who first derived it and gave it a certain value, and then decided it was equal to zero a few years ago due to Hubble's observations. What scientists realized recently is that no, it's not zero. With respect to the dice, a lot of physicists are trying to work out a theory more fundamental than quantum mechanics, such as string theory or loop quantum gravity.
Fri, 2007-04-20 05:49
#6
I don't see where what I said and you said disagree with each other. Einstein added the constant in as a filler, as it turns out it's necessary, and is likely the sign of something else that we're 'missing' in the equations.
Personally I really like the idea of string theory, but that's only because it sounds very romantic to have the foundations of the universe based on little tiny musical* stings.
* and by that I mean resonance vibrations, but that's the general idea of how string instruments work, but on a far larger scale.
Fri, 2007-04-20 14:26
#7
Yes, and that dummy Einstein suggested in 1907 that matter and energy are related!
He said that if you were to split the atom, you could potentially release vast amounts of energy.
Right! "Atomic energy". Suuuure.
What a dummy.
Fri, 2007-04-20 15:18
#8
quote:
Originally posted by quelar:
[b]I don't see where what I said and you said disagree with each other. Einstein added the constant in as a filler, as it turns out it's necessary, and is likely the sign of something else that we're 'missing' in the equations.Personally I really like the idea of string theory, but that's only because it sounds very romantic to have the foundations of the universe based on little tiny musical* stings.
* and by that I mean resonance vibrations, but that's the general idea of how string instruments work, but on a far larger scale.[/b]
Actually,
It's not exactly a fudge factor. It's a legitimite parameter. If you've taken a calculus class, the proper analogy is "integration constant."
Mon, 2007-04-23 18:45
#9
ceti
Wow, one of the most pointless conspiracy theories I've ever heard.
Thu, 2011-09-22 18:58
#10
Catchfire
Einstein=hack
Speed of light 'broken' by scientists
Einstein’s theory of special relativity, proposed in 1905, states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. But researchers at the CERN lab near Geneva claim they have recorded neutrinos, a type of tiny particle, travelling faster than the barrier of 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometers) per second.
The results have so astounded researchers that American and Japanese scientists have been asked to verify the results before they are confirmed as a discovery.
Fri, 2011-09-23 05:51
#11
part of the explanation may be that the particles were racing out of Switzerland and into Italy... who wouldn't?
Fri, 2011-09-23 06:02
#12
of University College London, says the claims, if proven true, would call into question our very understanding of physics and the universe.
She said: "It would turn everything on its head. It is too awful to think about.
"The basic thing it that would be questioned is that there is an absolute speed limit which is the basis of special relativity and that is a huge building block of modern physics.
"It permeates everything to do with how we have modelled the universe and everything. It would be very hard to predict what the effects would be."
Apparently CERN had similar results years ago and wrote it off to error. But the same results pop up again. Fermi Lab near Chicago will work to try and confirm these latest results.
Very weird. What's next, a speed of thought barrier? There goes Lorentz symmetry.
Fri, 2011-09-23 06:12
#13
Ya I don't think Einstein can be blamed for suggesting that photons can't travel faster than the velocity of light. Apparently there are newer theories of doubly special relativity using velocity of speed of light X10000. If it was shown that neutrinos can break velocity of light barrier, then Einstein would have said that we can't communicate faster than that.
Fri, 2011-09-23 07:22
#14
They think the apparent breaking of the speed of light could be explained by measurement errors. We'll see what happens when replication is attempted.
Fri, 2011-09-23 08:57
#15
Interesting article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/23/faster-light-neutrinos
There are some theories that predict neutrinos could travel faster than light, but the speed difference from the experiment is pretty small. It makes sense to wait for confirmation, I think.
The trip would take a beam of light around 2.4 milliseconds to complete, but after running the experiment for three years and timing the arrival of 15,000 neutrinos, the scientists discovered that the particles arrived at Gran Sasso 60 billionths of a second earlier, with an error margin of plus or minus 10 billionths of a second.
Since the speed of light in a vaccum is 299,792,458 metres per second, the neutrinos were apparently travelling at 299,798,454 metres per second.
Fri, 2011-09-23 14:11
#16
And a link to the actual paper:
Fri, 2011-09-23 19:36
#17
Oh yes, Einstien was wrong about everything, so we can all go back to believing whatever it is you want to be true.
What a great day for Deepak Chopra.
Anyways, nuetrino's have no mass and for the purposes of relativity, they are "nothing". What we have is nothing going faster than teh speed of light, if that is what is happening.
Einstein was right after all.
Fri, 2011-09-23 23:06
#18
ikosmos
Went to a lecture by a physicist on quantum theory last week. Not bad.
i just may have to brush up on Feynman's lectures. Incidently, he was a rather outstanding lecturer. No, really.
Sat, 2011-09-24 07:10
#19
I can't take sides or anything like that an im not science major, but i always did have a bit of curiosity around stuff like this. But then even if men of science don't want to admit that there is some ammount of guesswork behind theories. But the good thing is all this is that sudeenly, people ( even laymen) are all interested into whats all this buzz about the neutrino and it being able to travel faster than light. Is einstein right or wrong, is science all set to change? Either ways, the interest around a slightly dead topic is back...nice to see science back with a bang :))
Sat, 2011-09-24 07:26
#20
Einstein said that if speed of light is not a barrier for particle physics, then it would be possible to send information to the past. Time travel. If true and confirmed by U.S. and Japanese scientists, then it would be a very significant discovery.
Sat, 2011-09-24 13:37
#21
I think Cern is going to start wowing us on a regular basis. Just last week, they teased us with hints that they may have found "Higgs Bosson" or what some called "The God Particle", but examination of the data proved otherwise. It may be now that they've pretty much proved there is no such particle. At least, the hidding places for it have gotten fewer.
I don't think Cern is going to anwer many questions. I think what it will do, however, is make us ask better ones, and I think it will point people in a better direction regarding string theory and the ever elusive unified field theory.
Sat, 2011-09-24 17:14
#22
I think they've arrived at the edge of knowledge and are staring into a vast abyss that is the unknown. Everything they discover now will be new physics. CERN, Fermi, Hubble etc will work together to discover new laws of nature. Mankind is pregnant with scientific revolution.
Sun, 2011-09-25 17:00
#23
Ratings agencies downgrade speed of light
As the financial crisis continues to spread, it appears that not even the immutable laws of physics are immune from the effects. Credit rating agencies including Vibe Ratings have downgraded the speed of light from C to C-, after derivatives traders began speculating on its constantness.The effects of the downgrade will undoubtedly be far reaching. Not only could faster-than-light travel now be feasible, but also time travel, invisibility cloaks and negative interest mortgages.
They will be downgrading the gravitational constant 'G' next. Then we'll really be stuck.
Sun, 2011-09-25 20:00
#24
Ratings agencies downgrade speed of light
As the financial crisis continues to spread, it appears that not even the immutable laws of physics are immune from the effects. Credit rating agencies including Vibe Ratings have downgraded the speed of light from C to C-, after derivatives traders began speculating on its constantness.The effects of the downgrade will undoubtedly be far reaching. Not only could faster-than-light travel now be feasible, but also time travel, invisibility cloaks and negative interest mortgages.
They will be downgrading the gravitational constant 'G' next. Then we'll really be stuck.
Which of course reminded me of:
Sun, 2011-09-25 20:45
#25
Ha! Too funny. It doesn't look good for philosophical presentism.
OS/VR is planned to enable the user to migrate to totally unreal universes. To aid the user in identifying the difference between "Virtual Reality" and "Real Reality", a file containing a linear arrangement of multisensory total records of successive moments of now
will be established.
Wed, 2012-02-22 20:23
#26
BREAKING NEWS: Error Undoes Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Results
It appears that the faster-than-light neutrino results, announced last September by the OPERA collaboration in Italy, was due to a mistake after all. A bad connection between a GPS unit and a computer may be to blame.
Physicists had detected neutrinos travelling from the CERN laboratory in Geneva to the Gran Sasso laboratory near L'Aquila that appeared to make the trip in about 60 nanoseconds less than light speed. Many other physicists suspected that the result was due to some kind of error, given that it seems at odds with Einstein's special theory of relativity, which says nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. That theory has been vindicated by many experiments over the decades. ...