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1 posted on 04/05/2009 10:41:09 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: SunkenCiv; neverdem

fyi


2 posted on 04/05/2009 10:41:49 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
In this centennial year of Albert Einstein's revolutionary theories of space, time, and gravity, humanities scholars say that his influence extended far beyond science.

One of the biggest problems with this article is that it is based on a fallacy of clarity, that is a fallacy of accent. The concept of relativity is only part of Einstein's theory. In fact, he originally intended to name his theory invariance theory. The most important part of his theory is that the speed of light is constant, a universal constant. But he gave in to pressure from professional physicists to call it relativity theory. At the time Einstein was not a professional physicist. He was an amateur working as a clerk in the Swiss post office handling patent claims.

Newtonian physics uses Galilean relativity: space and time are absolute, but the speed of light is relative. In Einstein's physics, space and time are relative, but the speed of light is absolute. So if anyone ever tells you that Einstein proved that everything in the universe is relative, please point out fallacy. The speed of light is not relative; it is a universal constant. E = mc2. In that equation c is the speed of light. (The first letters of the alphabet are used for constants in algebraic formulas.)

For the world that most people live in, Newtonian physics gives the correct results. Relativity only comes into play when you are traveling near the speed of light. And since my car does not go that fast no matter how hard I press down on the accelerator, I don't worry much about relativity.

But of course science fiction is a lot of fun to read. There you can imagine that your car can travel near the speed of light. But the purpose of the imagination is not to take it literally. The purpose of the imagination is to give you a vacation from a literal world.

4 posted on 04/05/2009 12:06:04 PM PDT by stripes1776 ("That if gold rust, what shall iron do?" --Chaucer)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; Cacique; stripes1776; mikrofon; Pikachu_Dad; gorush

So, among his accomplishments in physics, we have Einstein to blame for a century’s worth of excreble “modern” art, music and dance? That doesn’t seem quite fair.


13 posted on 04/05/2009 2:45:09 PM PDT by sinanju
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