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Was Einstein wrong? Why some astrophysicists are questioning the theory of space-time
livescience.com ^ | Colin Stuart

Posted on 05/26/2021 8:19:24 AM PDT by BenLurkin

The quantum world is notoriously weird. Single particles can be in two places at once, for example. Only by making an observation do we force it to 'choose'. Before an observation we can only assign probabilities to the likely outcomes.

Such a picture cannot be reconciled with a smooth, continuous fabric of space-time. According to Einstein, space-time is warped by matter and energy, but quantum physics says matter and energy exist in multiple states simultaneously — they can be both here and over there.

According to Einstein, space-time is like a stage that remains in place whether actors are treading its boards or not —even if there were no stars or planets dancing around, space-time would still be there. However, physicists Laurent Freidel, Robert Leigh, and Djordje Minic think...space-time doesn't exist independently of the objects in it. Space-time is defined by the way objects interact. That would make space-time an artifact of the quantum world itself, not something to be combined with it.

The attraction of this theory — called modular space-time — is that it might help solve another long-standing problem in theoretical physics regarding something called locality, and a notorious phenomenon in quantum physics called entanglement. Physicists can set up a situation whereby they bring two particles together and link their quantum properties. They then separate them by a large distance and find they are still linked. Change the properties of one and the other will change instantly, as if information has traveled from one to the other faster than the speed of light in direct violation of relativity.

Modular space-time theory can accommodate such behavior by redefining what it means to be separated. If space-time emerges from the quantum world, then being closer in a quantum sense is more fundamental than being close in a physical sense.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; einstein; ftl; modularspacetime; physics; science; spacetime; stringtheory
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To: pelican001

I certainly hope not.

We’ve got enough problems already.


21 posted on 05/26/2021 8:55:14 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: RedStateRocker
Either something is measurable, repeatable, and testable or it’s B.S

Nothing can be measured perfectly, and therefore no experiment is perfectly repeatable, except within the limits of experimental error. Sometimes experiments, or tests, only produce meaningful results as the average of many trials.

22 posted on 05/26/2021 8:57:04 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Diana Moon Glampers for Secretary of Education! )
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Was 1040’s supposed to be 1940’s?

Yes. [Lowers head sheepishly in shame...]

23 posted on 05/26/2021 8:57:38 AM PDT by Yo-Yo (is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: BenLurkin

Bookmark


24 posted on 05/26/2021 8:57:41 AM PDT by aquila48 (o not let them make you care! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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To: plain talk

We can not even understand infinity or gravity yet we know it exist.


25 posted on 05/26/2021 9:02:12 AM PDT by eastforker (All in, I'm all Trump,what you got!)
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To: BenLurkin

Theories are simplifications, and any simplification of the real world is at best an approximation. So all theories are wrong, but a very small number are useful. The usual proof a new theory is useful is when it results in a new way to kill.


26 posted on 05/26/2021 9:08:24 AM PDT by Reeses (A journey of a thousand miles begins with a government pat down.)
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To: BenLurkin

space time for sale

1 sq foot per second for $10.


27 posted on 05/26/2021 9:15:23 AM PDT by DannyTN (,)
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To: BenLurkin
"Modular space-time theory can accommodate such behavior by redefining what it means to be separated. If space-time emerges from the quantum world, then being closer in a quantum sense is more fundamental than being close in a physical sense."

That's what she said.

28 posted on 05/26/2021 9:19:54 AM PDT by DannyTN (,)
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To: rightwingcrazy
Interaction precedes existence?

Have you just created a new philosophy: Interactionism?

29 posted on 05/26/2021 9:25:54 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: BenLurkin

from Wikipedia:

“At present, gravity is most accurately described by the general theory of relativity (proposed by Albert Einstein in 1915), which describes gravity not as a force, but as a consequence of masses moving along geodesic lines in a curved spacetime caused by the uneven distribution of mass... However, for most applications, gravity is well approximated by Newton’s law of universal gravitation, which describes gravity as a force causing any two bodies to be attracted toward each other, with magnitude proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.”

MASA consulted Newton’s version to get to the moon.


30 posted on 05/26/2021 9:26:13 AM PDT by odawg
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To: eastforker

We don’t know that infinity exists. It might exist as a mathematical concept, but even that is dicey. There is no evidence yet, or could ever be, that there is an infinite amount of space, time, matter, or energy.


31 posted on 05/26/2021 9:28:52 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: circlecity
we are just scratching the surface on a real understanding of quantum physics

Agreed.

The history of science is kinda clear on this point--often the "old science" is not "wrong", it is just incomplete.

We don't know what we don't know.
32 posted on 05/26/2021 9:31:01 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: BenLurkin

Listening to physicists these days is similar to visiting a mental institution. Except that the inmates of the institutions generally make more sense.


33 posted on 05/26/2021 9:31:42 AM PDT by Seruzawa (The political Left is the Garden of Eden of Incompetence - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: BenLurkin
This theory could be an explanation of how God could be both Divinely Simple with no parts or extension, and omnipresent, i.e. everywhere.

If God is entangled in all of creation, and being close is more a quantum than spatiotemporal phenomenon, then God can be everywhere without being anywhere.

34 posted on 05/26/2021 9:32:07 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: RedStateRocker
Either something is measurable, repeatable, and testable or it’s B.S.

You really do not want to go there...most of science gets flushed down the toilet kinda fast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKHUaNAxsTg

The link is Rupert Sheldrake's banned Ted Talk "The Science Delusion" where he talks (among other things) about scientific "laws" that have a nasty habit of changing over time and scientific "constants" that turn out not to be constant.
35 posted on 05/26/2021 9:35:31 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: RedStateRocker
I can't really measure why I like bacon much more than broccoli, but I know that I do and that matters a lot to me.

If I ever ordered a bacon cheeseburger and found that it had broccoli in it where the bacon ought to be I would be sorely disappointed.

36 posted on 05/26/2021 9:35:40 AM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Yes, of course. But within parameters testability is key. If I transmit a radio signal on 451.8625 MHz, it won’t be *exactly* that frequency, but close enough to test and measure in a repeatable fashion.


37 posted on 05/26/2021 9:38:17 AM PDT by RedStateRocker ("Never miss a good chance to Shut Up" - Will Rogers)
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To: Red Badger

Thus the age-old question: Does a tree falling in the forest make a sound if there is no ear to hear it?


38 posted on 05/26/2021 9:39:58 AM PDT by enumerated
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To: who_would_fardels_bear
We don’t know that infinity exists. It might exist as a mathematical concept, but even that is dicey. There is no evidence yet, or could ever be, that there is an infinite amount of space, time, matter, or energy.

What are you talking about? We all know that Congress has an infinite amount of money to spend.

39 posted on 05/26/2021 9:42:40 AM PDT by Petrosius
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To: cgbg

It’s hardly “banned” LOL.

https://blog.ted.com/the-debate-about-rupert-sheldrakes-talk/


40 posted on 05/26/2021 9:43:23 AM PDT by RedStateRocker ("Never miss a good chance to Shut Up" - Will Rogers)
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