Free Republic

Was Einstein a plagiarist? By Lucy Sherriff Published Monday 15th November 2004 15:57 GMT A theoretical physicist at the University of Nevada has published a paper alleging that Einstein did not derive the gravitational field equations at the heart of the General Theory of Relativity, and might in fact have copied key equations from fellow physicist David Hilbert. The two scientists were working in the same area in 1915, and were developing their theories independently but concurrently. Each submitted papers for publication throughout November of that year. The two were also corresponding about their research, making it hard to unravel...

Physicists in Germany have used an atomic interferometer to perform the most accurate ever test of the equivalence principle at the level of atoms. Sebastian Fray and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching and the universities of Munich and Tuebingen compared the acceleration of two isotopes of rubidium in the Earth's gravitational field (arXiv.org/abs/physics/0411052). As expected the atoms accelerated at the same rate. The weak equivalence principle is a cornerstone of general relativity and states that, in the absence of other forces, all objects fall with the same acceleration under the influence of gravity. Experiments...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Einstein was right -- again. Satellites that have been pulled slightly off their orbits show that the Earth is indeed twisting the fabric of space-time as it rotates, scientists said on Thursday. They said their findings are the first to directly measure and prove an important aspect of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity -- that a rotating body warps and twists the "fabric" that combines the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension of time. "As the Earth turns, it is actually twisting space-time with it. Near Earth, the twisting is greater," said Michael Salamon,...

Earth's spin warps space around the planet, according to a new study that confirms a key prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity. After 11 years of watching the movements of two Earth-orbiting satellites, researchers found each is dragged by about 6 feet (2 meters) every year because the very fabric of space is twisted by our whirling world. The results, announced today, are much more precise than preliminary findings published by the same group in the late 1990s. Frame dragging The effect is called frame dragging. It is a modification to the simpler aspects of gravity set out by...

Gravitational anomalies An invisible hand?An unexplained effect during solar eclipses casts doubt on General Relativity “ASSUME nothing” is a good motto in science. Even the humble pendulum may spring a surprise on you. In 1954 Maurice Allais, a French economist who would go on to win, in 1988, the Nobel prize in his subject, decided to observe and record the movements of a pendulum over a period of 30 days. Coincidentally, one of his observations took place during a solar eclipse. When the moon passed in front of the sun, the pendulum unexpectedly started moving a bit faster than...

FIRST-PERSON: Contradictions of liberal moral philosophy By Mark Kelly RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Did you watch the three-hour Peter Jennings special on April 5 that explained why no intelligent, right-thinking person would think Jesus was anything more than a misguided do-gooder with political aspirations? Did you notice the part where the Apostle Paul was written off for his supposed “puritanical intolerance"? Maybe you knew ahead of time that the Jennings “documentary" wasn’t going to be worth the time, but I know you endured the constant barrage of media reports that disparaged Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of The Christ" as an anti-Semitic gore-fest...

Evicting Einstein A physics experiment on the drawing board for the International Space Station could help find the grand unifying "Theory of Everything." Listen to this story via streaming audio, a downloadable file, or get help.March 26, 2004:  Sooner or later, the reign of Einstein, like the reign of Newton before him, will come to an end. An upheaval in the world of physics that will overthrow our notions of basic reality is inevitable, most scientists believe, and currently a horse race is underway between a handful of theories competing to be the successor to the throne.In the running...

A physics professor will try to turn back time in an experiment at the Miami Museum of Science. It's back to the future all over again -- at least, that's what Carlos Dolz has in mind. The Florida International University physics professor plans to take time to task at 10 a.m. Wednesday, when he presents an experiment that involves using acceleration to speed up a digital clock by four seconds. Dolz's experiment -- which takes six hours to finish -- will become part of Playing With Time, the current exhibit at the Miami Museum of Science. Dolz, who has been...

The Future According to Professor Paul Davies "Scientists have no doubt whatever that it is possible to build a time machine to visit the future". Since the publication of Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity in 1905, few, if any, scientists would dispute that time travel to the future is perfectly possible. According to this theory, time runs slower for a moving person than for someone who is stationary. This has been proven by experiments using very accurate atomic clocks. In theory, a traveller on a super high-speed rocket ship could fly far out into the Universe and then come back...

After String of Delays, Gravity Probe B Problems Continue By BRIAN BERGER Space News Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Gravity Probe B, a space-based physics experiment some 40 years in the making, is facing another potentially lengthy delay. The spacecraft was three days from rolling out to the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. when NASA decided Nov. 15 to replace an improperly wired component that threatened to interfere with the sensitive experiment. Replacing the component will entail some disassembly of the spacecraft and additional testing. The resulting delay, which could stretch into June, is expected to cost NASA...

Seeking still more complete descriptions of the workings of spacetime, scientists are testing the boundaries of the special theory of relativity. After a century, Einstein's special theory of relativity, which describes the motion of particles moving at close to the speed of light, has held up remarkably well. But as scientists probe the edges of the current knowledge of physics with new tests, they may find effects that require modifications on the venerable theory. Several current theories, designed to encompass the behavior of black holes, the big bang and the fabric of the universe itself, could lead to violations of...

RETHINKING RELATIVITY BY TOM BETHEL No one has paid attention yet, but a well-respected physics journal just published an article whose conclusion, if generally accepted, will undermine the foundations of modern physics -- Einstein's Theory of Relativity in particular. Published in Physics Letters A (December 21, 1998), the article claims that the speed with which the force of gravity propagates must be at least twenty billion times faster than the speed of light. This would contradict the Special Theory of Relativity of 1905, which asserts that nothing can go faster than light. This claim about the special status of the...

[The Cassini spacecraft will reach Saturn in July 2004 and should send the small Huygens probe into the hazy atmosphere of Titan in January 2005. On its way there, Cassini flew nearly behind the Sun from Earth's point of view two years ago, offering a chance for a highly precise test of general relativity. Courtesy NASA/JPL.] Albert Einstein still rules. His 1915 theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity, has just passed its most stringent test by far. Extremely precise measurements of the radio link between Earth and NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, bound for Saturn, match general relativity's predictions extraordinarily...

"You believe in a dice-playing God and I in perfect laws in the world of things existing as real objects." Albert Einstein Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Proem If in the development of a scientific theory an error is made, further errors will necessarily follow. Each new identification generally assumes the correctness of the theory developed up to that point. If the partial theory is incorrect, any extension will operate to perpetuate its errors, and in the process will generate additional and more extensive errors. Unless the initial error is corrected, the consequence is an endless series of errors piled...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A team of Australian scientists has proposed that the speed of light may not be a constant, a revolutionary idea that could unseat one of the most cherished laws of modern physics -- Einstein's theory of relativity. The team, led by theoretical physicist Paul Davies of Sydney's Macquarie University, say it is possible that the speed of light has slowed over billions of years. If so, physicists will have to rethink many of their basic ideas about the laws of the universe. "That means giving up the theory of relativity and E=mc squared and all that sort...

Ultra-fast particles inflated Universe, physicists say By Mike Martin and copyright 2002 United Press International UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. May 7 (UPI) -- Tachyons -- particles that move faster than the speed of light in defiance of Einstein's strict prohibitions against such amazing speeds -- may be responsible for the inflation that expanded the Universe from zero to trillions of light years in a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. Only a particle that moves at the phenomenal speed of a rolling tachyon, physicists say, could inflate the Universe as quickly as cosmologist Alan Guth first predicted in his...

Is God In Time? Gregory Koukl   Is it possible that all of history is one big space-time manifold--a "block universe"? Put your thinking caps on today. We're going to talk about time. It's common for us to make the comment "The spaceless, timeless God" or "Then we'll pass out of time, into eternity." However, the Scripture is not clear about God's timelessness. Most of the verses seem to indicate God is in time: Rev 1:4; Rev 4:8, Ps 90, Jude 25, 2 Pet 3:8. Two popular books describe a picture of God as timeless. Philip Yancey's book Disappointment...

The diplomatic 'math' of combatting terrorists doesn't add up.