Posted on 12/20/2016 7:24:12 PM PST by MtnClimber
The discovery of gravitational waves, announced earlier this year, marked the ultimate test of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Einstein published his theory in the form of 10 abstract equations 101 years ago. The equations did away with Newton’s theory of gravity and replaced it with curved space and warped time.
Within weeks, Karl Schwarzschild found a solution to Einstein’s equations. His conclusion was astonishing and almost unbelievable: it told us that time depends on altitude and that matter can create holes where space and time come to an end.
A few months later, Einstein himself found a solution to his own equations. This solution described waves in the curvature of spacetime that would ripple out at the speed of light whenever masses accelerated around each other.
For its first half-century, Einstein’s theory was controversial. Were the waves real or mere mathematical artefacts? Do gravitational waves deposit energy? Are the black holes hypothesised by astronomers the same black holes that Schwarszchild predicted, or are they some other very dense agglomerations of matter?
Over the past 40 years the evidence has mounted that gravitational waves actually exist and that black holes are the real thing. Thousands of physicists believed the theory well enough to devote years inventing technology for making the exquisitely sensitive detectors required to prove the theory.
Yet when the waves were finally discovered, it still came as a shock. The shock was to suddenly know what for years had been a belief and a hope..........
All shared the vision that we owe it to our children to teach our best understanding of the nature of our universe, rather than the obsolete 19th-century science that still dominates our school curriculum.
We heard about three countries that are pioneering Einsteinian physics in the classroom: South Korea, Norway and Scotland.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearscience.com ...
"If we can't explain a physical concept to a freshman physics major, we probably don't understand it very well ourselves."
-- Paraphrase of remark made by Richard Feynman to fellow Caltech professor David Goodstein.
You don't get a PhD in physics by being a slouch. But putting that aside ... check out any Leonard Susskind physics lecture on youtube. Leonard is a son of a plumber and taught his father a thing or two about black holes. He explains things very well. He is also brilliant.
Susskind had a running debate with Hawking for 20+ years or so about what happens to matter once inside a black hole. Hawking argued the information is destroyed. Susskind argued the information is not lost but retained at the event horizon or something to that effect. Susskind ultimately won that debate. Great man.
“”If we can’t explain a physical concept to a freshman physics major, we probably don’t understand it very well ourselves.”
— Paraphrase of remark made by Richard Feynman to fellow Caltech professor David Goodstein. “
This remark is applicable to many subjects. I was subject to it when I gave Linear Algebra lectures as a TA. I didn’t understand the subject enough to teach the classes - fortunately, 1) I didn’t give all the lectures, just some select topics 2) I buckled down and learned the subject matter.
Unless they're using a specific example of (say) velocity in orbit, for v --> c (or some fraction thereof).
One of the other interesting discoveries a teacher makes is that by explaining things to others it helps with understanding. However that said, there are lots of things in Feynman’s Physics Lecture Series that I will not be able to understand.
The flip side is that what I teach is far simpler than advanced Physics.
Chesterton agreed:
It is a good exercise to try for once in a way to express any opinion one holds in words of one syllable.
If you say "The social utility of the indeterminate sentence is recognized by all criminologists as a part of our sociological evolution towards a more humane and scientific view of punishment," you can go on talking like that for hours with hardly a movement of the gray matter inside your skull. But if you begin "I wish Jones to go to gaol and Brown to say when Jones shall come out," you will discover, with a thrill of horror, that you are obliged to think.
The long words are not the hard words, it is the short words that are hard. There is much more metaphysical subtlety in the word "damn" than in the word "degeneration."
But the article seems to imply that Newtonian physics is no longer worth teaching and I would have to disagree. It works to explain the observable world that the vast majority of us experience and is pretty easy to understand.
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I agree. Newtonian mechanics is still used most of the time. For instance, interplanetary navigation of spacecraft is done by observing stars and using Newtonian mechanics.
What’s a checkbook? All I gots is a EBT card.
A PhD in physics takes some work for sure. I’m talking about all the other snowflake courses, but yes, putting that aside.
I’m not familiar with Leonard Susskind so I’ll look him up. YouTube has been very kind to me in my nuclear and other physics studies. Thanks for the tip.
I’m surprised that the replies to this serious article contains only one “witty” remark. Thank you for the posting and discussion.
The gravity of Newton has beaten me up a few times. It sure seemed forceful...
I wish they would teach basic Logic, including examples of the more commonly-used (by politicians and sales reps) fallacies.
But, but - the science is settled!!
+1. I think Einstein was frustrated because he didn’t have the math skills to prove some of his own theories.
GR is not a post-grad class. It’s introduced late Freshmen/sophmore year (depending on when certain classes are taken) and then taught in depth during the junior year for physics majors obtaining their B.S. At least it was in the 80s.
I don’t believe the 4th grade reading level as an average for the US. Maybe for certain cities. These type of claims are similar to the test score claims where certain countries report only test scores from college prep H.S.s, but don’t bother to mention H.S. is not a requirement and/or trade schools are not included.
In order to teach logic properly one needs to have a full grasp of man’s ability to reason and be rational. Regretfully the majority of educator’s in our schools adhere to “some” of the precepts of post-modernism (even if only at a subconscious level). Those presuppositions in turn create a learning environment that contain some very irrational beliefs.
While not impossible, i.e. a broken clock is correct twice a day, I don’t think it’s advisable to have an irrational person trying to teach purely rational concepts foreign to their beliefs. Just look at where the results have gotten us thus far.
You’re right.
He learned enough math to handle his theories. Einstein’s problem was that he had enormous initial success working along the line that the universe should behave a certain way, but the more he got into it, it didn’t.
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