- What the Global Positioning System Tells Us About Relativity by Thomas Van Flandern
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Posted on 11/19/2014 4:56:35 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
GPS has a new job. It does a great job of telling us our location, but the network of hyper-accurate clocks in space could get a fix on something far more elusive: dark matter.
Dark matter makes up 80 per cent of the universe's matter but scarcely interacts with ordinary matter. A novel particle is the most popular candidate, but Andrei Derevianko at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Maxim Pospelov at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada propose that kinks or cracks in the quantum fields that permeate the universe could be the culprit.
If they are right, fundamental properties such as the mass of an electron or the strength of electromagnetic fields would change at the kinks. "The effect is essentially locally modifying fundamental constants," Derevianko says. Clocks would be affected too, measuring time slightly differently as a result.
Unique signature
That's where GPS comes in. The network of satellites is about 50,000 kilometres in diameter, and is travelling through space – along with the entire solar system – at about 300 kilometres a second. So any time shift when the solar system passes through a cosmic kink will take a maximum of 170 seconds to move across network.
Other things could perturb GPS timekeeping, but only a signal from dark matter would have that signature, say Derevianko and Pospelov....
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
I never got far enough into physics to comprehend dark matter, other than it seemed to be a “convenience” to account for “missing” matter to account for the gravitational forces needed, by calculation, to hold galaxies together.
As such, thinking back to the physics I did have (perhaps demonstrating I only know enough to screw things up) I wonder about the 19th century classical concept of the “ether”.
The ether was supposed to be the medium on which electromagnetic waves propagate. When physicists determined that light was just an electromagnetic wave, they wondered how, as a wave, it managed to propagate through space (vacuum) since other waves, like sound or water, needed a medium. So, they figured there was a mysterious “ether” that served this purpose.
They ultimately rejected this concept and basically said that light needs no medium on which to propagate.
So I wonder: is it possible that the old dudes were right and that the ether exists and it is made of dark matter?
I’ve pondered the parallels between dark matter/dark energy and ether theories myself. Went to school at CWRU and was there on the anniversary of Michelson-Morley’s failed experiment to detect ether. After a few beers, more than a few of us went through the mental exercise of wondering if they had screwed up the experiment and what if ether really did exist...
Never occurred to me that dark matter and ether might be one in the same, but it’s an interesting idea.
I don’t know enough about the theories to have an opinion, but I suspect dark matter is way to simple and convenient an answer. The real answer is likely going to be surprising, strange and unexpected and will likely lead to even more questions than it answers.
As far as I’m concerned ,dark matter presently resides in the WH.
Don't even try. It's BS. I see it as a mathematical construct created by certain eggheads to help solve their equations and explain their failures to see the Hand of God at work in the cosmos. And all the other boobs like deGrasse Tyson merrily follow along saying, "Oh yeah! That MUST be it!"
I’ve pondered the parallels between dark matter/dark energy and ether theories myself. Went to school at CWRU and was there on the anniversary of Michelson-Morley’s failed experiment to detect ether. After a few beers, more than a few of us went through the mental exercise of wondering if they had screwed up the experiment and what if ether really did exist...
...
The experiment isn’t difficult by today’s standards and has been repeated many times. All of the successful predictions of relativity also confirm the results.
They ultimately rejected this concept and basically said that light needs no medium on which to propagate.
...
Einstein was the one who said it, and his successful version of relativity was the result. And he just didn’t say it, experiments demonstrated it.
That’s half-dark matter.
Nice wiki link on this subject, including Einstein. I had never actually googled this subject before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_theories
Modern science's most popular equation is: actual_results = expected_results x kluge_factor
There are many Kluge factors at work in the multi-billion dollar global warming industry. The idea of dark matter is a huge Kluge factor.
It's starting to look like Newton and Einstein may have been closer to the truth all along. A very interesting physics article worth a read is: Fluid Tests Hint at Concrete Quantum Reality
Dark Matter and Dark Energy seem to be the wheels within wheels devised to continue to prop up the rotten old mythology in the face of the new Copernicus.
I do not believe that GPS satellites actually have on-board atomic clocks. Might be wrong, but I’d be surprised if they do.
I have “The Radio Handbook, First Edition, First Printing” from 1935 that still claims that radio waves (and light/other waves) use “the ether” as a propagation medium.
Michio Kaku was a theoretically physicist at one time. He basically admitted that at one point he realized you get a massive divide by zero error as you consider things like black holes, or the total amount of matter in the Universe.
Then he left. He’s making more money now too.
I like him, in that he subscribes to Feynman and Jacques Barzun’s position that a real scientist can make the universe available to regular people.
It had nothing to do with being egalitarian. If you understand the universe, really understand it, you should be able to explain it to a reasonably prudent person.
Feynman was on the blue ribbon panel examining the Challenger explosion. Lots of politics, and lots of arguing.
Feynman knew it came down to the gaskets. Said that they weren’t rated for the cold weather that was present at the launch.
They began to shout him down. He had obtained a gasket. Rather than say a word, he put the gasket into the pitcher of ice water that they gave the panelists. He waited a minute, then took the gasket out. Brittle, it basically came apart in his hand.
End of discussion. That’s a scientist - just go out and prove it. Design an experiment and prove your theory.
Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
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