The Flat Earth Society

Flat Earth Discussion Boards => Flat Earth Investigations => Topic started by: Tom Bishop on August 30, 2018, 12:03:55 AM

Title: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on August 30, 2018, 12:03:55 AM
A recent Globebusters episode had some discussion of the Universal Accelerator as held by the Flat Earth Society. They look at a PBS video which states that it was Albert Einstein who came up with the idea of an upwardly accelerating earth. We have made mention of this in the past, but here is a video. Watch the following video at the 3h4m16s mark for 15 minutes. Here is the video at that timestamp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmGwZeSP5WY&feature=youtu.be&t=3h4m16s

The video states that Einstein argued that the only way Newton's gravity makes sense is if the earth were flat and accelerating upwards. There are too many coincidences with Newton's gravity, Einstein says. Einstein ended up adapting his upwardly accelerating earth theory to the Round Earth model by making space bend, another way to make the earth accelerate, giving us General Relativity as we know it today.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: garygreen on August 30, 2018, 02:07:05 AM
fwiw here's a link to the pbs video itself in case one wants to watch that first and then skip to the commentary in the op:

https://youtu.be/NblR01hHK6U
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: LiqwdE on August 30, 2018, 06:18:29 PM
Ok let me see if I can get my thoughts correct.

Newton's law of gravity will only work on a geometrically flat earth.

And Eistein law of general relativity of an upward acceleration will on work on a geometrically curved space?

Considering the shape of the earth ( whether you believe its is flat or round) is not GEOMETRICALLY flat I'm not sure of the point?

This would show the both models are not flat (geometrically speaking) which we know. But that gravity might not exists if space/time is curved. This doesnt proof of the earth is a globe or disc.

Can someone help me with this?
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on August 31, 2018, 10:51:30 PM
I don't think it has anything to do with the earth being "geometrically" flat. My interpretation of this is that Einstein's argument was that Newtonian Gravity is curious in that it operates as if the earth were accelerating upwards.

Firstly, Newton's gravity has all objects move at the same rate towards the earth uniformly. That is its defining feature, and this operation is suspiciously as if the earth were accelerating upwards.

Secondly, objects in free fall experience an opposite "fake" force of gravity of the same magnitude in which they are exactly weightless. An astronomical coincidence. Einstein says that the idea that the object is stationary and the earth is accelerating into it is the best conclusion and the best way to make sense of Newton's Gravity.

The Flat Earth concept comes in because it's not possible for the surface of the Round Earth model to accelerate upwards. An upwardly accelerating surface suggests that the earth is flat.

The video presenter appears to further suggest that seven years later the accelerating earth idea was adopted into General Relativity by using non-euclidean bending space to achieve the accelerating earth illusion of gravity on a Round Earth. The end of it says that Gravity is still an illusion in GR and bodies like basketballs make "straight line paths" to their destination. It is the environment that moves into the basketball with the bendy space physics.

Thus is how the Universal Accelerator came to be. No one really knows when it was adopted into the FE model. I believe that it pre-dates the modern Flat Earth Society revival. Maybe it was adopted around the time of the end of Rowbotham's Zetetic Society or sometime during Lady Blount's Universal Zetetic Society, which were in operation at around the time of General Relativity's development? A lot of their materials are still lost or undigitized. We can see that is not just something that was frivolously made up, and has an appropriate origin story.

If the concept was discussed by the old Zetetic Societies, it would be interesting to find their commentary on the matter.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on August 31, 2018, 11:05:32 PM
According to Advance Search on the other forum the earliest references to "Universal Accelerator" appears in August 1st, 2006, and the Universal Accelerator is already part of the Flat Earth model, with commenters talking about it.

The earliest mention is by James:

https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=1659.msg34051#msg34051

"I do not believe that UFOs are visitors from other planets. While interplanetary travel is actually possible (though has never been achieved by mankind), it would involve "riding" the universal accelerator rather than flying freely through space (which is simply impossible unless one can accelerate more than the UA itself). Any aliens visiting this planet would not appear in the sky, they would climb over the Antarctic wall."

If this is the very first message on the "Universal Accelerator" on the entire forum, it may be that Daniel's site lost old posts.

The earliest comment on "accelerating" in relation to an upwardly accelerating earth appears on On Dec 10, 2005:

https://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=801.msg5476#msg5476

"I would be interested to learn how the flat-eathers believe that the Earth formed/was created and, if is accelerating upwards, where it was created."
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: garygreen on August 31, 2018, 11:20:29 PM
I don't think it has anything to do with the earth being "geometrically" flat. My interpretation of this is that Einstein's argument was that Newtonian Gravity is curious in that it operates as if the earth were accelerating upwards.

Firstly, Newton's gravity has all objects move at the same rate towards the earth uniformly. That is its defining feature, and this operation is suspiciously as if the earth were accelerating upwards.

Secondly, objects in free fall experience an opposite "fake" force of gravity of the same magnitude in which they are exactly weightless. An astronomical coincidence. Einstein says that the idea that the object is stationary and the earth is accelerating into it is the best conclusion and the best way to make sense of Newton's Gravity.

sort of.  you're getting a lot of the details wrong.

einstein's argument is simply that a free-falling frame of reference has the same properties as an inertial frame.  start the video at 8:00.  newton says that free-falling frames cannot be inertial because they accelerate with respect to one another.  einstein resolves this with general relativity: these objects are actually following straight line paths in a curved space.

einstein isn't making the argument that "lol gravity doesn't make sense, so it must be that the earth is accelerating."  he's arguing that two different frames (earth frame vs. free-fall frame) are actually equivalent.  the implication of this equivalence is that there is no "force" of gravity.  space itself is curved, and objects in free-fall are simply following straight lines embedded in a curved space.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on August 31, 2018, 11:39:12 PM
I don't think it has anything to do with the earth being "geometrically" flat. My interpretation of this is that Einstein's argument was that Newtonian Gravity is curious in that it operates as if the earth were accelerating upwards.

Firstly, Newton's gravity has all objects move at the same rate towards the earth uniformly. That is its defining feature, and this operation is suspiciously as if the earth were accelerating upwards.

Secondly, objects in free fall experience an opposite "fake" force of gravity of the same magnitude in which they are exactly weightless. An astronomical coincidence. Einstein says that the idea that the object is stationary and the earth is accelerating into it is the best conclusion and the best way to make sense of Newton's Gravity.

sort of.  you're getting a lot of the details wrong.

einstein's argument is simply that a free-falling frame of reference has the same properties as an inertial frame.  start the video at 8:00.  newton says that free-falling frames cannot be inertial because they accelerate with respect to one another.  einstein resolves this with general relativity: these objects are actually following straight line paths in a curved space.

einstein isn't making the argument that "lol gravity doesn't make sense, so it must be that the earth is accelerating."  he's arguing that two different frames (earth frame vs. free-fall frame) are actually equivalent.  the implication of this equivalence is that there is no "force" of gravity.  space itself is curved, and objects in free-fall are simply following straight lines embedded in a curved space.

Watch at 6:13: https://youtu.be/NblR01hHK6U?t=6m13s (https://youtu.be/NblR01hHK6U?t=6m13s)

When bodies are in free-fall in Newtonian Gravity the downwards force exactly cancels out the fake upwards force, creating weightlessness. Einstein questions Newton on this astounding coincidence and wins the exchange with his upwards accelerating earth idea.

Seven years later Einstein develops the GR bendy space to get the upwards acceleration idea working in the Round Earth model.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: garygreen on August 31, 2018, 11:42:06 PM
Watch at 6:13: https://youtu.be/NblR01hHK6U?t=6m13s (https://youtu.be/NblR01hHK6U?t=6m13s)

When bodies are in free-fall in Newtonian Gravity the downwards force exactly cancels out the fake upwards force, creating weightlessness. Einstein questions Newton on this astounding coincidence and wins the argument with his upwards accelerating earth idea.

that's not the crux of the argument.  newton and einstein are arguing about free-falling frames of reference.  einstein says that inertial frames and free-falling frames are the same.  a free-falling frame has all the properties of an inertial frame.  newton says no for the reasons at 8:00.  gravity must be a force.

einsteain resolves this by saying that the above is only true if space is geometrically flat.  if it is curved, then objects can travel in straight lines at a constant velocity because those lines are in a curved space.

watch the follow-up video.  pay attention to his summary of the first video at the beginning.

https://youtu.be/D3GVVkPb3OI
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on August 31, 2018, 11:54:56 PM
einsteain resolves this by saying that the above is only true if space is geometrically flat.  if it is curved, then objects can travel in straight lines at a constant velocity because those lines are in a curved space.

Incorrect. After Einstein won the argument with his accelerating earth concept, by pointing out the coincidence proposed by Newton, the narrator then says that seven years later Einstein develops the GR bendy space to get the upwards acceleration idea working in the Round Earth model. The upwardly accelerating earth was the seed to that model. That is the entire premise of the video from the very start.

You are linking us to videos about the bendy space theory he made seven years after steamrolling the Newtonians with the accelerating earth.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: garygreen on September 01, 2018, 12:01:05 AM
After Einstein won the argument with his accelerating earth concept, the narrator then says that seven years later Einstein develops the GR bendy space to get the upwards acceleration idea working in the Round Earth model.

that's not even remotely close to what this video says.  or what einstein says.

you're taking the conceit of this video far too literally.  it wasn't an actual argument, and he's not laying things out in any kind of chronological order.  it's just a line of reasoning that you're stopping in the middle of for some reason.

newton and einstein are arguing about whether or not a free-falling frame of reference is inertial.  newton says that free-falling objects can accelerate with respect to one another, and with respect to the earth; therefore, gravity is a force.  einstein resolves this by saying that newton is right only if space is geometrically flat.  if space itself can curve, then free-falling frames can be inertial for the reasons given in videos two, three, and four.  therefore, gravity is not a force; it's just the curvature of space.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on September 01, 2018, 12:11:48 AM
After Einstein won the argument with his accelerating earth concept, the narrator then says that seven years later Einstein develops the GR bendy space to get the upwards acceleration idea working in the Round Earth model.

that's not even remotely close to what this video says.  or what einstein says.

you're taking the conceit of this video far too literally.  it wasn't an actual argument, and he's not laying things out in any kind of chronological order.  it's just a line of reasoning that you're stopping in the middle of for some reason.

After the accelerating earth drama and Einstein winning the exchange with the Newtonians the narrator continues:

Quote
If, instead the world has non-eculidean and curved spacetime then straight lines and constant speed doesn't mean what you think it means. And it turns out that inertial frames in curved space time can basically do whatever they want. It took Einstein about seven years to realize that. But once he did, a beautiful model of the world emerged called General Relativity. One of the central precepts of General Relativity is that we inhabit curved space-time.

Einstein was not using his bendy space arguments against the Newtonians. He was using the accelerating earth argument, just as the narrator states. The upwardly accelerating earth is the premise of the video. The bendy space arguments did not come until later.

This is what the video literally says. If you want to make up your own version of the video and what happened, feel free. That is not what the astrophysicist says and how the situation is portrayed, however.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Chris_Thompson on September 01, 2018, 12:15:47 AM
After Einstein won the argument with his accelerating earth concept, the narrator then says that seven years later Einstein develops the GR bendy space to get the upwards acceleration idea working in the Round Earth model.

that's not even remotely close to what this video says.  or what einstein says.

you're taking the conceit of this video far too literally.  it wasn't an actual argument, and he's not laying things out in any kind of chronological order.  it's just a line of reasoning that you're stopping in the middle of for some reason.

newton and einstein are arguing about whether or not a free-falling frame of reference is inertial.  newton says that free-falling objects can accelerate with respect to one another, and with respect to the earth; therefore, gravity is a force.  einstein resolves this by saying that newton is right only if space is geometrically flat.  if space itself can curve, then free-falling frames can be inertial for the reasons given in videos two, three, and four.  therefore, gravity is not a force; it's just the curvature of space.

I agree with your conclusion, but disagree on the reasons. Newton claimed that acceleration is caused by a force. Period. The problem with this claim is that, depending on your coordinate system, you can infer "fictitious forces" which do not actually exist. Just think about two children (oppositely positioned) on a rotating carousel. If one throws a ball to the other, the ball will appear to curve. This curve is an acceleration hence a force must have caused it (we call this the Coriolis force, which does not really exist). They will have a different understanding of the cause of the motion than their parents who are standing beside the carousel.

Thus, Newton is incorrect even in Minkowski (flat) space -- the above example demonstrates this. Indeed, free-falling objects have a non-inertial reference frame, and that is the whole point. Einstein showed that one cannot distinguish between a non-inertial frame and an inertial frame that has a force. Thus, all forces must be "fictitious," and must simply be a disagreement about which coordinate system we are using. Of course, showing this mathematically is ridiculously difficult.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Chris_Thompson on September 01, 2018, 12:21:17 AM
After Einstein won the argument with his accelerating earth concept, the narrator then says that seven years later Einstein develops the GR bendy space to get the upwards acceleration idea working in the Round Earth model.

that's not even remotely close to what this video says.  or what einstein says.

you're taking the conceit of this video far too literally.  it wasn't an actual argument, and he's not laying things out in any kind of chronological order.  it's just a line of reasoning that you're stopping in the middle of for some reason.

After the accelerating earth drama and Einstein winning the exchange with the Newtonians the narrator continues:

Quote
If, instead the world has non-eculidean and curved spacetime then straight lines and constant speed doesn't mean what you think it means. And it turns out that inertial frames in curved space time can basically do whatever they want. It took Einstein about seven years to realize that. But once he did, a beautiful model of the world emerged called General Relativity. One of the central precepts of General Relativity is that we inhabit curved space-time.

Einstein was not using his bendy space arguments against the Newtonians. He was using the accelerating earth argument, just as the narrator states. The upwardly accelerating earth is the premise of the video. The bendy space arguments did not come until later.

This is what the video literally says. If you want to make up your own version of the video and what happened, feel free. That is not what the astrophysicist says and how the situation is portrayed, however.

The "bendy space" argument and the "accelerating" argument are identical. This is the whole point of general relativity. The reason something accelerates is because space is curved, and it is trying to follow the best straight line it can. When space is curved, that straight line is also, hence an acceleration manifests.

So I am very confused by your statement: "Einstein was not using his bendy space arguments against the Newtonians. He was using the accelerating earth argument." There is no difference between these two.

Sorry to jump in mid-conversation. I am just really interested in this topic and want to pick your brain. 
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: garygreen on September 01, 2018, 12:48:53 AM
After the accelerating earth drama and Einstein winning the exchange with the Newtonians the narrator continues:
Quote
It took Einstein about seven years to realize that.

notice that he doesn't say anything like "seven more years" or "seven years later" or "seven years after."  this isn't an actual argument that took place over some period of time.  he's just explaining einstein's position using an argument as a narrative device.  this isn't a chronological telling of a "winning exchange" between einstein on the one hand and newtonians on the other.  ffs i can't believe i even have to explain this to you. 

This is what the video literally says. If you want to make up your own version of the video and what happened, feel free. That is not what the astrophysicist says and how the situation is portrayed, however.

lol that's exactly what this video says.  that's what this whole argument is about: free-falling frames of reference.  you're just fixated on taking the narrative device completely literally and then stopping the middle for no reason.

Quote
Well, not so fast, says Einstein.  Maybe there is.  What about a frame that's in freefall?  Think about it.  If I put you in a box and drop you off a cliff, then in the frame of the box, everything just floats, weightless.  The falling frame of the box behaves just like a stationary inertial frame that's way out in intergalactic space where there's no gravity.  So why can't the box's frame be inertial?
...
Einstein says, look buddy, I'm just following your rules.  You established the test for what an inertial frame is-- release a force-free object and it stays put.  Stationary frames in intergalactic space pass that test. But freely-falling frames here on Earth also pass that test if your so-called gravity is fictitious.
...
This inability to distinguish freefall from lack of gravity has a name, by the way.  Einstein called it the equivalence principle, and if you buy it, then maybe the falling frames really are inertial.  If so, then it's the falling frames that establish the standard of non-acceleration, in which case, it's really the ground that's accelerating upward and what we've always been calling a gravitational force is an artifact of being in an accelerated frame of reference.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on September 01, 2018, 01:07:53 AM
I believe you to be mistaken. The entire episode is about an accelerating earth. Einstein is talking about an accelerating earth, not "bendy space," in his argument to the Newtonians. He didn't come up with bendy space until seven years later.

This is literally what it says in the video. From the transcript:

Quote
Isaac Newton said that an Apple falls because a gravitational force  accelerates it toward the ground, but what if it's really the ground accelerating up to meet the Apple?

Suppose I drop an apple according to Isaac Newton the ground can be considered at rest Earth applies a gravitational force to the Apple and that force causes the Apple to accelerate downward but according to Einstein there's no such thing as a gravitational force instead it's more appropriate to think of the Apple as stationary and the ground along with everything on the ground as accelerating upward into the Apple.

Now what I just said sounds preposterous and maybe even moronic, but it's not sophistry. There's something substantive here, and today I'm going to clarify what exactly this point of view means why Einstein came to adopt it and how it planted the seeds for what would eventually become General Relativity.


...


Now, in Newtonian physics this is just an accounting trick that has no broader significance. Really, Dustin's car is accelerating and this extra backwards gravity is fake, but Einstein asked: Hold on, what if the so-called real downward gravity from Earth is also fake? A side effect generated because Earth's surface is really accelerating upward.

Now, you know what Newton would say. He'd say “that's crazy” and would remind us that inertial frames are the standard for measuring true acceleration. So you can only say earth is really accelerating upward if you can identify an inertial frame relative to which Earth's surface accelerates upward and there's obviously no inertial frame like that.

“Well, not so fast” says Einstein, maybe there is.

What about a frame that's in freefall? Think about it. If I put you in a box and drop you off a cliff, in the frame of the box everything just float weightless. The falling frame of the box behaves just like a stationary inertial frame that's way out in intergalactic space where there's no gravity. So why can't the box's frame be inertial as well?

Because, Newton says, that falling frame can't be inertial. It's really accelerating downward at 9.8 m/s^2. The interior just seems like zero-g because the downward acceleration acts like a fake extra upward gravitational field that, from the perspective of the box, just happens to exactly cancel the real downward gravitational field of Earth.

By coincidence.

Really Newton? Really?


Einstein says: Look buddy, I'm just following your rules. You established the test for what an inertial frame is. Release a object and it stays put. Stationary frames in intergalactic space passed that test, but freely falling frames here on earth also pass that test if your so-called gravity is fictitious.

More to the point, Newton, if you're inside the box there's no way for you to know that you're not in intergalactic space. This inability to distinguish free fall from lack of gravity has a name by the way. Einstein called it the Equivalence Principle. And if you buy it then maybe the falling frames really are inertial. If so, then it's the falling frames that establish the standard of non acceleration, in which case it's really the ground that's accelerating upward and what we've always been calling a gravitational force is an artifact of being in an accelerated frame of reference.

It's not different from the weird backward jolt that you experience on the train that you know perfectly well isn't being caused by anything, so why are you insisting that the downward jolt we experience every day on earth has a physical origin? Maybe gravity, just like that backward jolt on the train, is an illusion. Doesn't that point of view seem simpler?

Now, Newton says: Nice try Einstein, but you forgot something. Earth is round. Down isn't really down, it's radially inward, and this creates two problems with thinking about freely falling frames as inertial, or thinking about gravity as an illusion.

...

If, instead the world has non-eculidean and curved spacetime then straight lines and constant speed doesn't mean what you think it means. And it turns out that inertial frames in curved space time can basically do whatever you want. It took Einstein about seven years to realize that. But once he did, a beautiful model of the world emerged called General Relativity. One of the central precepts of General Relativity is that we inhabit curved space-time.

Einstein won the issue by calling gravity an illusion, and saying that an accelerating earth makes more sense. This is exactly what the narrator states. Do you know more about this than the author?

So no, the bendy space stuff wasn't dreamed up until later. Seven years later. This is what is literally stated. You are making a scenario up, imagining that Einstein was really using his bending space explanation all along and never thought of an accelerating earth or used that argument.

The story is in chronological order, indeed. The Equivalence Principal was developed long before General Relativity. You are trying your hardest to remove all references to an accelerating earth. This is factually incorrect to the content of the video.

Feel free to argue "The video is wrong!" and "The scientist is wrong" all you wish. This is what the video portrays and the counter argument of "well, he's wrong" is decidedly weak.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: garygreen on September 01, 2018, 06:53:07 PM
Einstein won the issue by calling gravity an illusion, and saying that an accelerating earth makes more sense. This is exactly what the narrator states. Do you know more about this than the author?

i completely agree with the author.  however, your characterization of what the author is saying is wrong.

this whole debate is about inertial frames.  einstein argues that free-falling frames are inertial.  that's what the train/van stuff is about.  now newton "objects" by saying that free-falling frames are not inertial because they accelerate with respect to one another.  einstein resolves this by saying not if space itself is curved.

read the quotes you posted:

Quote
This inability to distinguish free fall from lack of gravity has a name by the way. Einstein called it the Equivalence Principle. And if you buy it then maybe the falling frames really are inertial. If so, then it's the falling frames that establish the standard of non acceleration, in which case it's really the ground that's accelerating upward and what we've always been calling a gravitational force is an artifact of being in an accelerated frame of reference.
...
[Newton objects]: Nice try Einstein, but you forgot something. Earth is round. Down isn't really down, it's radially inward, and this creates two problems with thinking about freely falling frames as inertial, or thinking about gravity as an illusion...

this is the "objection" it took einstein seven years to answer.  without answering it, he could not argue that "an accelerating earth makes more sense."  he answered it with curved space.

read the description of the first video by the second video:

Quote
We actually started this campaign in our "Is Gravity an Illustion?" episode.  In that episode we noted objections to Einstein's viewpoint...Now ultimately, the way around those objections is to realize that if the world is a curved spacetime, then the familiar meanings of terms like a constant velocity straight line and acceleration will become ambiguous.  We'll be forced to redefine them, and once we do there's no longer going to be an inconsistency with saying that falling frames are inertial, even though they accelerate relative to one another.

Our goal in this series of videos is to explain that last statement, and to explain how it lets you account for the motion we observe even if there's no Newtonian force of gravity.

so, the goal of these videos is to explain that, if space is curved, then there is no longer an inconsistency between falling frames and inertial frames, even though they accelerate with respect to one another.  which is exactly what i've been saying this whole time.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: QED on September 01, 2018, 11:03:28 PM
I believe you to be mistaken. The entire episode is about an accelerating earth. Einstein is talking about an accelerating earth, not "bendy space," in his argument to the Newtonians. He didn't come up with bendy space until seven years later.

This is literally what it says in the video. From the transcript:

Quote
Isaac Newton said that an Apple falls because a gravitational force  accelerates it toward the ground, but what if it's really the ground accelerating up to meet the Apple?

Suppose I drop an apple according to Isaac Newton the ground can be considered at rest Earth applies a gravitational force to the Apple and that force causes the Apple to accelerate downward but according to Einstein there's no such thing as a gravitational force instead it's more appropriate to think of the Apple as stationary and the ground along with everything on the ground as accelerating upward into the Apple.

Now what I just said sounds preposterous and maybe even moronic, but it's not sophistry. There's something substantive here, and today I'm going to clarify what exactly this point of view means why Einstein came to adopt it and how it planted the seeds for what would eventually become General Relativity.


...


Now, in Newtonian physics this is just an accounting trick that has no broader significance. Really, Dustin's car is accelerating and this extra backwards gravity is fake, but Einstein asked: Hold on, what if the so-called real downward gravity from Earth is also fake? A side effect generated because Earth's surface is really accelerating upward.

Now, you know what Newton would say. He'd say “that's crazy” and would remind us that inertial frames are the standard for measuring true acceleration. So you can only say earth is really accelerating upward if you can identify an inertial frame relative to which Earth's surface accelerates upward and there's obviously no inertial frame like that.

“Well, not so fast” says Einstein, maybe there is.

What about a frame that's in freefall? Think about it. If I put you in a box and drop you off a cliff, in the frame of the box everything just float weightless. The falling frame of the box behaves just like a stationary inertial frame that's way out in intergalactic space where there's no gravity. So why can't the box's frame be inertial as well?

Because, Newton says, that falling frame can't be inertial. It's really accelerating downward at 9.8 m/s^2. The interior just seems like zero-g because the downward acceleration acts like a fake extra upward gravitational field that, from the perspective of the box, just happens to exactly cancel the real downward gravitational field of Earth.

By coincidence.

Really Newton? Really?


Einstein says: Look buddy, I'm just following your rules. You established the test for what an inertial frame is. Release a object and it stays put. Stationary frames in intergalactic space passed that test, but freely falling frames here on earth also pass that test if your so-called gravity is fictitious.

More to the point, Newton, if you're inside the box there's no way for you to know that you're not in intergalactic space. This inability to distinguish free fall from lack of gravity has a name by the way. Einstein called it the Equivalence Principle. And if you buy it then maybe the falling frames really are inertial. If so, then it's the falling frames that establish the standard of non acceleration, in which case it's really the ground that's accelerating upward and what we've always been calling a gravitational force is an artifact of being in an accelerated frame of reference.

It's not different from the weird backward jolt that you experience on the train that you know perfectly well isn't being caused by anything, so why are you insisting that the downward jolt we experience every day on earth has a physical origin? Maybe gravity, just like that backward jolt on the train, is an illusion. Doesn't that point of view seem simpler?

Now, Newton says: Nice try Einstein, but you forgot something. Earth is round. Down isn't really down, it's radially inward, and this creates two problems with thinking about freely falling frames as inertial, or thinking about gravity as an illusion.

...

If, instead the world has non-eculidean and curved spacetime then straight lines and constant speed doesn't mean what you think it means. And it turns out that inertial frames in curved space time can basically do whatever you want. It took Einstein about seven years to realize that. But once he did, a beautiful model of the world emerged called General Relativity. One of the central precepts of General Relativity is that we inhabit curved space-time.

Einstein won the issue by calling gravity an illusion, and saying that an accelerating earth makes more sense. This is exactly what the narrator states. Do you know more about this than the author?

So no, the bendy space stuff wasn't dreamed up until later. Seven years later. This is what is literally stated. You are making a scenario up, imagining that Einstein was really using his bending space explanation all along and never thought of an accelerating earth or used that argument.

The story is in chronological order, indeed. The Equivalence Principal was developed long before General Relativity. You are trying your hardest to remove all references to an accelerating earth. This is factually incorrect to the content of the video.

Feel free to argue "The video is wrong!" and "The scientist is wrong" all you wish. This is what the video portrays and the counter argument of "well, he's wrong" is decidedly weak.

"Einstein won the issue by calling gravity an illusion, and saying that an accelerating earth makes more sense. This is exactly what the narrator states. Do you know more about this than the author?"

Quite possibly, but that is difficult to evaluate. I am only saying that I do not think you understand what the author means.

Now that is quite a claim for me to make, so I better justify it with solid reasoning!

Gravity is an illusion, according to Einstein. What Newton called a force, Einstein demonstrated is a geometrical consequence of space. But wait, how does a curved space manifest as an acceleration? Well, objects follow the most direct path through space, we call this a geodesic, and we quantify such paths using mathematical objects called metrics. Relative to an external observer, an object moving through curved space will bend. Since its direction is changing, we perceive this as an acceleration.
So you see, Einstein was not really confirming that the Earth is accelerating upwards, what he was saying is that the Earth resides in a curved space-time, by virtue of the fact that it has mass.

Presently, you are drawing a distinction between special relativity and general relativity. The Equivalence Principle belonging to the former. I recommend that you not do this, however, because SR states that it is not possible for an object to accelerate for very long. The reason is because the energy needed to maintain the acceleration approaches infinity. The reason why the Earth is in an accelerating frame, according to Newton now, is because it is spinning. The reason why objects accelerate in the vicinity of Earth, according to Einstein, is because the mass of the Earth warps the space around it. This has nothing to do with SR at all, and it a GR concept.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on September 02, 2018, 03:14:47 AM
"Einstein won the issue by calling gravity an illusion, and saying that an accelerating earth makes more sense. This is exactly what the narrator states. Do you know more about this than the author?"

Quite possibly, but that is difficult to evaluate. I am only saying that I do not think you understand what the author means.

Now that is quite a claim for me to make, so I better justify it with solid reasoning!

Gravity is an illusion, according to Einstein. What Newton called a force, Einstein demonstrated is a geometrical consequence of space. But wait, how does a curved space manifest as an acceleration? Well, objects follow the most direct path through space, we call this a geodesic, and we quantify such paths using mathematical objects called metrics. Relative to an external observer, an object moving through curved space will bend. Since its direction is changing, we perceive this as an acceleration.

You are incorrect in your chronology. This discussion was about the upward accelerating surface making more sense than Newtonian Gravity, due to the coincidences. Einstein didn't come up with the curved space stuff until 7 years later. The Equivalence Principle stuff happened way before the General Relativity stuff.

From Wikipedia:

"The equivalence principle was properly introduced by Albert Einstein in 1907, when he observed that the acceleration of bodies towards the center of the Earth at a rate of 1g (g = 9.81 m/s2 being a standard reference of gravitational acceleration at the Earth's surface) is equivalent to the acceleration of an inertially moving body"

"General relativity (GR, also known as the general theory of relativity or GTR) is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and the current description of gravitation in modern physics."

read the quotes you posted:

Quote
This inability to distinguish free fall from lack of gravity has a name by the way. Einstein called it the Equivalence Principle. And if you buy it then maybe the falling frames really are inertial. If so, then it's the falling frames that establish the standard of non acceleration, in which case it's really the ground that's accelerating upward and what we've always been calling a gravitational force is an artifact of being in an accelerated frame of reference.
...
[Newton objects]: Nice try Einstein, but you forgot something. Earth is round. Down isn't really down, it's radially inward, and this creates two problems with thinking about freely falling frames as inertial, or thinking about gravity as an illusion...

this is the "objection" it took einstein seven years to answer.  without answering it, he could not argue that "an accelerating earth makes more sense."  he answered it with curved space.

Sure. It took Einstein seven years to make his "gravity is the upwards acceleration of the surface" idea work with the Round Earth Theory. I have no disagreement with that.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: AATW on September 02, 2018, 08:40:06 AM
Einstein didn't come up with the curved space stuff until 7 years later.
Even if that is true...so what?
Why are you jumping into the middle of Einstein's train of thought rather than looking at his final model which is the one which has become accepted as it keeps on passing experimentatal tests.

Einstein may have done a thought experiment where he considered an accelerating earth but he knew the earth was a globe so he knew that isn't what was really happening. His model of curves space time resolved the issue and has become the accepted model, not one of a flat earth accelerating upwards.

It's disingenuous to jump into the middle of Einstein's train of thought and pretend that he ever really thought the earth was accelerating upwards or that UA existed.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: QED on September 02, 2018, 10:46:10 PM
"Einstein won the issue by calling gravity an illusion, and saying that an accelerating earth makes more sense. This is exactly what the narrator states. Do you know more about this than the author?"

Quite possibly, but that is difficult to evaluate. I am only saying that I do not think you understand what the author means.

Now that is quite a claim for me to make, so I better justify it with solid reasoning!

Gravity is an illusion, according to Einstein. What Newton called a force, Einstein demonstrated is a geometrical consequence of space. But wait, how does a curved space manifest as an acceleration? Well, objects follow the most direct path through space, we call this a geodesic, and we quantify such paths using mathematical objects called metrics. Relative to an external observer, an object moving through curved space will bend. Since its direction is changing, we perceive this as an acceleration.

You are incorrect in your chronology. This discussion was about the upward accelerating surface making more sense than Newtonian Gravity, due to the coincidences. Einstein didn't come up with the curved space stuff until 7 years later. The Equivalence Principle stuff happened way before the General Relativity stuff.

From Wikipedia:

"The equivalence principle was properly introduced by Albert Einstein in 1907, when he observed that the acceleration of bodies towards the center of the Earth at a rate of 1g (g = 9.81 m/s2 being a standard reference of gravitational acceleration at the Earth's surface) is equivalent to the acceleration of an inertially moving body"

"General relativity (GR, also known as the general theory of relativity or GTR) is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and the current description of gravitation in modern physics."

read the quotes you posted:

Quote
This inability to distinguish free fall from lack of gravity has a name by the way. Einstein called it the Equivalence Principle. And if you buy it then maybe the falling frames really are inertial. If so, then it's the falling frames that establish the standard of non acceleration, in which case it's really the ground that's accelerating upward and what we've always been calling a gravitational force is an artifact of being in an accelerated frame of reference.
...
[Newton objects]: Nice try Einstein, but you forgot something. Earth is round. Down isn't really down, it's radially inward, and this creates two problems with thinking about freely falling frames as inertial, or thinking about gravity as an illusion...

this is the "objection" it took einstein seven years to answer.  without answering it, he could not argue that "an accelerating earth makes more sense."  he answered it with curved space.

Sure. It took Einstein seven years to make his "gravity is the upwards acceleration of the surface" idea work with the Round Earth Theory. I have no disagreement with that.

We are in agreement about the chronology, I was just explaining this poorly earlier, and led you astray. Your stated chronology is correct, and I do not dispute this. What I am saying is that even though he stated the Equivalence Principle (EP) before he formalized GR, the EP is still as GR concept, not an SR one. In fact, it is the EP which led Einstein to develop GR. Indeed, GR is the solution to (or the consequence of) the EP.

I think what you are trying to do is use Einstein's EP to justify UA. A priori, there is no conflict in doing so. Of course, what you then need to do is strip off everything else that Einstein said later, because it directly refutes UA.

That is quite different than saying that Einstein claims an accelerating Earth makes more sense. He said nothing of this kind, and found a consistent theory which posits that Earth warps space around it by virtue of its mass, and it is this that causes the acceleration.

In fact, if you assume a flat Earth, then according to the EP, that Earth must be infinite. Otherwise the acceleration would not be constant for everyone. This is a fun problem to show the mathematics for. I will try to find the time to do this and post it for your analysis and critique.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: LiqwdE on September 03, 2018, 05:29:59 AM
Just wanted to say Thanks to Tom for the taking his time to reply. I might be a globetard, but I really do try to remain unbiased. I enjoy looking at both sides, not to argue but to understand. Im 99% certain the earth is a sphere. But I was also 99% sure my first marriage would last so... ;)

I did read a biography on Einstein a few years ago, if i remember the name Ill come back an edit.

While the Video has a fake arguement for comedy sake, its not to far from the truth. These were the basic thoughts he was wrestling with. In the very beginning of his Gravity problem he did have thoughts on a flat earth. But he was certain the earth was spherical and you cannot have all sides of a sphere accelerating outwards. But a "flat earth w/ universal accelerator" thought kinda was in his head.

BUT, you cant say "Einstein said the Earth is accelerating upwards so the earth has to be flat." Thats a little bit of a cut and paste job out of context.
You either believe Einstein or your dont. :)

Im pretty sure until everyone saw their first Globe had the thought the earth is flat. Never stop asking question, people have been wrong about all kinds of stuff.
But dont go down the rabbit hole to far, be willing to listen to both sides with an open mind.


Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: RonJ on October 11, 2018, 08:16:09 PM
Maybe I'm missing something here.  I do understand how a constant acceleration of 9.81 meters/s/s could make me not like what I see on the scale.  Yes, I believe that gravity is kind of 'spooky' and why Einstein had a lot of problems with it.  When I was in school we were always taught that acceleration was a vector.  You have the magnitude correct, but what about the direction?  If a direction could be determined maybe you could verify using other celestial bodies that the earth is indeed speeding up and heading off in some direction at a constant rate of acceleration.  The other big problem is that my 'back of the envelope' calculations reveled that if the earth started at 0 speed, relative to what, I don't know, and then started a constant acceleration to make us all stay on this earth, we would reach the speed of light in about 1 year.  Of course if you choose to believe Einstein, as you get closer and closer to the speed of light, the amount of energy to keep the constant mass in constant acceleration would rapidly increase towards infinity.  It looks to me like you need some other theory of attraction other than a constant acceleration.  The theory will 'crash and burn' eventually unless you can change the speed of light.   
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: AATW on October 12, 2018, 06:45:03 AM
The interesting thing about FE Theory is that science is largely dismissed and the whole scientific method rubbished, but here and there where it suits them they cherry pick parts of scientific theory where it suits them. Relativity is a good example. All the stuff about gravity is dismissed because gravity doesn't exist, but the bit about things not being able to accelerate past the speed of light is happily accepted because it suits them.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on October 12, 2018, 05:23:13 PM
Einstein didn't invent the idea of relative motion.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: AATW on October 12, 2018, 05:42:41 PM
Ok. Not sure what that’s got to do with the way you cherry pick little bits of science you don’t really understand when it suits you and dismiss the rest.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on October 13, 2018, 02:21:52 AM
Ok. Not sure what that’s got to do with the way you cherry pick little bits of science you don’t really understand when it suits you and dismiss the rest.

That is not true. I only dismiss things when there is not enough emperical evidence. There have been relative motion experiments, but I know of no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space'.

The real crime is the position of appealing to authority and accepting everything you are told.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: AATW on October 13, 2018, 12:40:15 PM
That is not true. I only dismiss things when there is not enough emperical evidence.
Rubbish. You dismiss things when they don't fit your agenda and cherry pick things which do.
Your definition of whether there is "enough empirical evidence" is whether it fits in with what you believe.

Quote
The real crime is the position of appealing to authority and accepting everything you are told.
A reasonable point, but a strange one coming from someone who regularly appeals to Rowbotham's authority (ironic, as he has none) and accepts everything he tells you. A prime example - I pick this because it's been so much discussed here - is his assertion that the horizon always rises to eye level. Bobby has shown very clearly that it doesn't but you continue to blindly accept Rowbotham's pontification about this and resuse to do any tests - note, looking at the horizon and thinking "looks about eye level" is not a valid test of this when the dip angle is so small.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: markjo on October 13, 2018, 03:23:46 PM
Ok. Not sure what that’s got to do with the way you cherry pick little bits of science you don’t really understand when it suits you and dismiss the rest.

That is not true. I only dismiss things when there is not enough emperical evidence. There have been relative motion experiments, but I know of no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space'.
Tom, are you forgetting about gravitational lensing?  That was literally one of the first experimental tests of GR and bendy space-time.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: rabinoz on October 15, 2018, 02:17:16 AM
Ok. Not sure what that’s got to do with the way you cherry pick little bits of science you don’t really understand when it suits you and dismiss the rest.

That is not true. I only dismiss things when there is not enough emperical evidence. There have been relative motion experiments, but I know of no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space'.

The real crime is the position of appealing to authority and accepting everything you are told.
No, because Einstein never "showed gravity to be a 'bending of space' " but:
Quote
In Einstein’s view of the world, gravity is the curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects.
From: Understanding gravity—warps and ripples in space and time (https://www.science.org.au/curious/space-time/gravity)
And there is a huge and highly significant difference between "a 'bending of space' " and "the curvature of spacetime".

Therefore there are "no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space' " but there are experiments which show gravitation to result from a curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects".

The following is long but might be worth reading.

Spacetime can be thought of as having both spacelike and timelike components.
When spacetime is curved by a massive object like the earth both the spacelike and timelike components are curved but only infinitesmally.
And it is the curvature of the timelike component that is the only significant cause of gravitation near earth or even the sun.
To simplify writing this I will just use Space in lieu of the spacelike component and Time in lieu of the timelike component in the following.

Objects are usually moving through both Space and Time and to compare these, compatible units must be used.
In cosmology, these units might be distance in Space in lightyears and Time in years but for local objects, Space in lightseconds and Time in seconds is more natural.

Now just as an example an object supported above the earth might be considered
      stationary in Space (or travelling at 0 lightseconds/second) relative to the earth but is travelling in Time at seconds/second).
The mass of the earth curves spacetime towards the earth so an unconstrained object (one in free-fall) would follow this trajectory  (known as a geodesic) and fall to earth.
But the constrained object requires a force to prevent it from following its natural trajectory in spacetime - an inertial pseudo-force.

The curvature in spacetime near the earth in so small as to be virtually undetectable - an effective change in the diameter of earth of only about 4 mm and 1 m for the sun (if I'm not mistaken).

Now as to "experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of spacetime'."
Till recently little more could be said other than that all observations have been "consistent with GR" but recent numerical results have provided more direct evidence.
These all are to do with cosmology because for ordinary calculations within the solar system Newton's Laws are extraordinarily accurate.
See this quote from Einstein's Pathway to General Relativity by John D. Norton (https://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/chapters/general_relativity_pathway/index.html)
Quote
One condition the new equations must satisfy is that they must return Newtonian results for ordinary conditions. For Newton's theory works extraordinarily well for the weak, static gravitational fields of our solar system. The sentence highlighted in red says:

"However it turns out the this tensor does not reduce to the [Newtonian expression] Δφ in the case of infinitely weak, static gravitational fields."

But as to the topic "Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator", that involves accepting just a little step on "Einstein's Pathway to General Relativity" and denying everything else he developed from that.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on October 15, 2018, 04:34:36 PM
Ok. Not sure what that’s got to do with the way you cherry pick little bits of science you don’t really understand when it suits you and dismiss the rest.

That is not true. I only dismiss things when there is not enough emperical evidence. There have been relative motion experiments, but I know of no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space'.
Tom, are you forgetting about gravitational lensing?  That was literally one of the first experimental tests of GR and bendy space-time.

Professor Charles Lane Poor says that there are other causes for the "lensing" that is seen that have nothing to do with curving space or "gravity". (http://gsjournal.net/Science-Journals/Historical%20Papers-Relativity%20Theory/Download/2626) Also see his other papers on the matter (http://gsjournal.net/Science-Journals-Papers/Author/545/Charles%20Lane,%20Poor).

In fact, this phenomenon was known about long before Einstein came up with GR.

Quote from: rabinoz
Therefore there are "no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space' " but there are experiments which show gravitation to result from a curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects".

Quantum Mechanics proposes an entirely different mechanism for gravity where space-time does not bend or curve. The last time I checked there was no Grand Unification Theory or verification of the curving space theory. Please provide a link to the Nobel prize winner so that we may congratulate him or her. Thank you.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: RonJ on October 15, 2018, 05:10:07 PM
I can understand why an acceleration of the flat earth (in some unspecified vector direction) would hold all of us on the ground.  The flat earth theories also seem to require a firmament (dome) to keep the sea water and air from falling off the edge.  Additionally, the Sun and Moon are inside the dome and rotate at a certain rate to match what is seen by humans on the surface of the earth.  Now the big question is what keeps the moon (a sphere of 32 miles) at 3000 miles above the earth's surface in place?  I suppose that there could be a cable that holds the moon to the top of the dome but no one has mentioned that.   You can also see a lot of surface damage (craters) on the moon.  I was always told that they were produced by the collisions of asteroids.  Did these asteroids come thru the dome or was the moon made that way (by unspecified beings) before it was suspended inside the dome?       
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: edby on October 15, 2018, 05:47:09 PM
I can understand why an acceleration of the flat earth (in some unspecified vector direction) would hold all of us on the ground.  The flat earth theories also seem to require a firmament (dome) to keep the sea water and air from falling off the edge.  Additionally, the Sun and Moon are inside the dome and rotate at a certain rate to match what is seen by humans on the surface of the earth.  Now the big question is what keeps the moon (a sphere of 32 miles) at 3000 miles above the earth's surface in place?  I suppose that there could be a cable that holds the moon to the top of the dome but no one has mentioned that.   You can also see a lot of surface damage (craters) on the moon.  I was always told that they were produced by the collisions of asteroids.  Did these asteroids come thru the dome or was the moon made that way (by unspecified beings) before it was suspended inside the dome?     
The big question is whether UA is action at a distance, or at a point. If the former, this explains why the moon is accelerating upwards as well as the earth, but does not explain why the action does not also affect humans, buildings, things in coal mines etc. If the latter, it is difficult to explain why the moon and the heavens do not come crashing down.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: stack on October 15, 2018, 06:24:28 PM
I can understand why an acceleration of the flat earth (in some unspecified vector direction) would hold all of us on the ground.  The flat earth theories also seem to require a firmament (dome) to keep the sea water and air from falling off the edge.  Additionally, the Sun and Moon are inside the dome and rotate at a certain rate to match what is seen by humans on the surface of the earth.  Now the big question is what keeps the moon (a sphere of 32 miles) at 3000 miles above the earth's surface in place?  I suppose that there could be a cable that holds the moon to the top of the dome but no one has mentioned that.   You can also see a lot of surface damage (craters) on the moon.  I was always told that they were produced by the collisions of asteroids.  Did these asteroids come thru the dome or was the moon made that way (by unspecified beings) before it was suspended inside the dome?     
The big question is whether UA is action at a distance, or at a point. If the former, this explains why the moon is accelerating upwards as well as the earth, but does not explain why the action does not also affect humans, buildings, things in coal mines etc. If the latter, it is difficult to explain why the moon and the heavens do not come crashing down.

The way it's been explained to me is that UA is accelerating everything inside the Universe. The reason why terrestrial things (humans among them) don't fly upwards is that we are 'shielded' from below by earth itself. However, if the moon and sun and all other celestial objects are above the earth, then wouldn't they be shielded too? Then the question is, to your point, why haven't we accelerated upward and slammed into them? I guess that brings in the 'dome' argument, the moon and sun being beneath it. But it's my understanding that Saturn, for example, is above the dome. So why doesn't our dome slam into it? I haven't found an explanation for this. May have missed it though.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: RonJ on October 15, 2018, 07:29:51 PM
If there is a shielding argument then the old equation of F=MA will have to be modified.  There's no shielding variables in that equation.  If Newton's Second law is not defective then I would expect to find a suspension cable holding the moon up.  If the shielding variable is, indeed, viable then you could check that by putting a BB inside a basketball.  If the moon is inside the dome, then I would think that the surface of it would be protected.  You can see a lot of blemishes on the surface with your own eyes.  I've always been told they were made by the collisions from asteroids over millions of years.  Maybe the dome has been penetrated many times by those objects.  Maybe the moon was created with all the blemishes and is some kind of 'manufacturing defect'.  These are all interesting questions and keeps my brain churning. 
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: rabinoz on October 16, 2018, 03:12:46 AM
Ok. Not sure what that’s got to do with the way you cherry pick little bits of science you don’t really understand when it suits you and dismiss the rest.

That is not true. I only dismiss things when there is not enough emperical evidence. There have been relative motion experiments, but I know of no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space'.
Tom, are you forgetting about gravitational lensing?  That was literally one of the first experimental tests of GR and bendy space-time.

Professor Charles Lane Poor says that there are other causes for the "lensing" that is seen that have nothing to do with curving space or "gravity". (http://gsjournal.net/Science-Journals/Historical%20Papers-Relativity%20Theory/Download/2626) Also see his other papers on the matter (http://gsjournal.net/Science-Journals-Papers/Author/545/Charles%20Lane,%20Poor).
OK, so you'd prefer to go with what Professor Charles Lane Poor wrote:
Quote from: Professor Charles Lane Poor
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qtpv96d6e4w2ec/Is%20Einstein%20Wrong%20--%20A%20Debate%2C%20Charles%20Lane%20Poor.png?dl=1)
And my previous post contained:
for ordinary calculations within the solar system, Newton's Laws are extraordinarily accurate.
See this quote from Einstein's Pathway to General Relativity by John D. Norton (https://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/chapters/general_relativity_pathway/index.html)
Quote
One condition the new equations must satisfy is that they must return Newtonian results for ordinary conditions. For Newton's theory works extraordinarily well for the weak, static gravitational fields of our solar system.
Professor Charles Lane Poor is simply claiming that since Newton Law of Universal Gravitation is so much simpler, and it is, that it should be accepted over Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.
But:So can we say that if you don't agree with Einstein's GR that you do accept the Newtonian Law of Universal Gravitation, as Professor Charles Lane Poor does.
Otherwise, it seems quite inconsistent for you to appeal to an authority that you, yourself regard as in error.

Quote from: Tom Bishop
In fact, this phenomenon was known about long before Einstein came up with GR.
See above, "Newtonian Gravitation predicts that massive objects will bend light".

Quote from: Tom Bishop
Quote from: rabinoz
Therefore there are "no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space' " but there are experiments which show gravitation to result from a curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects".

Quantum Mechanics proposes an entirely different mechanism for gravity where space-time does not bend or curve.
Sure, "Quantum Mechanics proposes" with proposes being the important word but, other than near singularities (the centres of black holes) GR does work.
There is very active research into the validity of GR on the very small scale and to my knowledge no such limit has been determined yet - GR still works.

Quote from: Tom Bishop
The last time I checked there was no Grand Unification Theory or verification of the curving space theory. Please provide a link to the Nobel prize winner so that we may congratulate him or her. Thank you.
There are not likely to be any Nobel prize winners in verifying GR but there is a certain Nobel prize for the first person to disprove GR.
Just as there is a certain Nobel prize for a Grand Unification Theory.

Quote from: Tom Bishop
The last time I checked there was no . . . . .  verification of the curving space theory.
There is no "curving space theory" of gravitation! Please read my previous post. "Curved Space" only becomes significant near objects like neutron stars and black holes. "Space" curvature even near the sun is quite insignificant.
There is curvature of spacetime as in General Relativity and the curvature of the timelike component of spacetime is by far the most signigican in "our neck of the woods".

But as to the verification of General Relativity you might read:
Tests of General Relativity: A Review By Estelle Asmodelle May 4th, 2017 (https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1705/1705.04397.pdf)
Some Comments on the Tests of General Relativity. M. Anyon and J. Dunning-Davie (https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0806/0806.0528.pdf)
Three Experiments That Show Relativity Is Real, Chad Orzel. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/chadorzel/2015/07/22/three-experiments-that-show-relativity-is-real/#3ee8fc1a2999)


Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on October 16, 2018, 03:46:55 AM
Ok. Not sure what that’s got to do with the way you cherry pick little bits of science you don’t really understand when it suits you and dismiss the rest.

That is not true. I only dismiss things when there is not enough emperical evidence. There have been relative motion experiments, but I know of no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space'.
Tom, are you forgetting about gravitational lensing?  That was literally one of the first experimental tests of GR and bendy space-time.

Professor Charles Lane Poor says that there are other causes for the "lensing" that is seen that have nothing to do with curving space or "gravity". (http://gsjournal.net/Science-Journals/Historical%20Papers-Relativity%20Theory/Download/2626) Also see his other papers on the matter (http://gsjournal.net/Science-Journals-Papers/Author/545/Charles%20Lane,%20Poor).
OK, so you'd prefer to go with what Professor Charles Lane Poor wrote:
Quote from: Professor Charles Lane Poor
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/7qtpv96d6e4w2ec/Is%20Einstein%20Wrong%20--%20A%20Debate%2C%20Charles%20Lane%20Poor.png?dl=1)
And my previous post contained:
for ordinary calculations within the solar system, Newton's Laws are extraordinarily accurate.
See this quote from Einstein's Pathway to General Relativity by John D. Norton (https://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/teaching/HPS_0410/chapters/general_relativity_pathway/index.html)
Quote
One condition the new equations must satisfy is that they must return Newtonian results for ordinary conditions. For Newton's theory works extraordinarily well for the weak, static gravitational fields of our solar system.
Professor Charles Lane Poor is simply claiming that since Newton Law of Universal Gravitation is so much simpler, and it is, that it should be accepted over Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.
But:
  • I believe that Professor Charles Lane Poor wrote that in 1924 - and there's been "a lot of water under the bridge since then".
  • Even Newtonian Gravitation predicts that massive objects will bend light, though only by half as much as Einstein's GR.
So can we say that if you don't agree with Einstein's GR that you do accept the Newtonian Law of Universal Gravitation, as Professor Charles Lane Poor does.
Otherwise, it seems quite inconsistent for you to appeal to an authority that you, yourself regard as in error.

Read the article again. The bending of starlight around the sun is explained with neither Newtonian Gravity or Relativity.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: rabinoz on October 16, 2018, 06:00:12 AM
Read the article again. The bending of starlight around the sun is explained with neither Newtonian Gravity or Relativity.
Do you mean "The bending of starlight around the sun is explained with either Newtonian Gravity or Relativity"?

Yes, Professor Charles Lane Poor ends with
Quote from: Ch. Lane Poor.
Thus the original, but now unquoted and apparently forgotten, paper of Einstein shows, directly and without the possibility of doubt, that his formula of planetary motion is based upon and involves the Newtonian law of inverse squares; shows that he derived his formula from that of Newton by a direct transformation in time units.
The so-called relativity rotation of planetary orbits is a mathematical illusion: an illusion due to an incomplete mathematical transformation and to an illogical interpretation of the resulting formula. The Newtonian law has not been abolished: there is no Einsteinian law of gravitation.

I'm not one to try to judge between the writings of the eminence of Professor Charles Lane Poor and Albert Einstein, I simply do not have that depth of knowledge, but:
But I fail to see why you are so strongly supporting Newton's Laws of Motion and Universal Gravitation because they alone make a finite flat earth quite impossible.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on October 16, 2018, 07:53:24 AM
Again, my comment to you is to read the article to the very end. Poor does not describe the cause of the bending of starlight around the sun to be due to Newtonian Gravity or Relativity at all.
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: rabinoz on October 16, 2018, 10:54:01 AM
Again, my comment to you is to read the article to the very end. Poor does not describe the cause of the bending of starlight around the sun to be due to Newtonian Gravity or Relativity at all.
All I see is Professor Charles Lane Poor postulating an excuse for the observations made during those eclipses. He knows that the results far exceed that from simple Newtonian gravitation but still cannot accept that Einstein might be right.
Quote from: Professor Charles Lane Poor
In its passage from a distant star to the telescope in Australia or Mexico, the ray of light passes through the atmosphere of the sun, it passes through though the atmosphere of the earth.
In the former it may get bent, in the latter it certainly is bent out of its straight path. Everyone is familar with the effects of refraction.
Whenever a ray of light passes from one medium to another, from air to glass, or from air to water, it is bent out of its straight path. Upon this fact are constructed telescopes, risms, and eye-glasses.
Under ordinary conditions the amount of refraction suffered by very markedly with changes in the temperature of the air.
When, in an eclipse, the sun disappears behind the moon it ceases for the moment to warm the air, and the temperature of our atmosphere drops suddenly. With this change in temperature the amount of the refraction changes, and the star appears to change its position.
And no thermometer can record these sudden changes, no computation can take account of the abnormal and unknown changes in refraction caused by the eclipse shadow. 
Astronomers are very aware of the effect of refraction but I would suspect that any change in refraction due to his postulated temperature change would be all in a similar direction for all the stars and the sun's corona.

Nevertheless those early observations were "pushing the limits" of measurements back in the 1920s and while they were (and still are) claimed to "prove GR" that claim was a bit premature.

As I noted earlier "Newton's theory works extraordinarily well for the weak, static gravitational fields of our solar system" and measurement accuracy back there was not quite "up to the task" of a satisfying verification - a scientific theory might be verified but is never really regarded as being proven.

This is the way Wikipedia describes that issue:
Quote
Tests of general relativity, Deflection of light by the Sun (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_general_relativity)
The early accuracy, however, was poor. The results were argued by some to have been plagued by systematic error and possibly confirmation bias, although modern reanalysis of the dataset suggests that Eddington's analysis was accurate. The measurement was repeated by a team from the Lick Observatory in the 1922 eclipse, with results that agreed with the 1919 results and has been repeated several times since, most notably in 1953 by Yerkes Observatory astronomers and in 1973 by a team from the University of Texas. Considerable uncertainty remained in these measurements for almost fifty years, until observations started being made at radio frequencies.
This paper lists 12 sets of data from 1919 to 1973, On the Gravitational Bending of Light—Was Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington Right? G. G. Nyambuya, W. Simango (https://www.academia.edu/6519356/On_the_Gravitational_Bending_of_Light_Was_Sir_Arthur_Stanley_Eddington_Right)
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: QED on October 30, 2018, 01:57:53 AM
Ok. Not sure what that’s got to do with the way you cherry pick little bits of science you don’t really understand when it suits you and dismiss the rest.

That is not true. I only dismiss things when there is not enough emperical evidence. There have been relative motion experiments, but I know of no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space'.
Tom, are you forgetting about gravitational lensing?  That was literally one of the first experimental tests of GR and bendy space-time.

Professor Charles Lane Poor says that there are other causes for the "lensing" that is seen that have nothing to do with curving space or "gravity". (http://gsjournal.net/Science-Journals/Historical%20Papers-Relativity%20Theory/Download/2626) Also see his other papers on the matter (http://gsjournal.net/Science-Journals-Papers/Author/545/Charles%20Lane,%20Poor).

In fact, this phenomenon was known about long before Einstein came up with GR.

Quote from: rabinoz
Therefore there are "no experiments which show gravity to be a 'bending of space' " but there are experiments which show gravitation to result from a curvature of spacetime caused by massive objects".

Quantum Mechanics proposes an entirely different mechanism for gravity where space-time does not bend or curve. The last time I checked there was no Grand Unification Theory or verification of the curving space theory. Please provide a link to the Nobel prize winner so that we may congratulate him or her. Thank you.

So there has been quite a bit of empirical evidence: gravitational lensing (which you deny), GPS signal corrections (these satellites use GR to pinpoint locations on Earth which would otherwise lack such precision), gravitational waves (which has been detected multiple times), observation of black holes (including merger events). Scientists have even demonstrated empirically time dilation using atomic clocks.

So the empirical evidence is there. I think you simply disagree with the interpretation. Your rebuttals seem to favor literature published in alternative journals from almost a hundred years ago. None of these ideas (at least none that you have referenced so far that I have read) were taken seriously by the scientific community and were quickly abandoned.

It is similar, if I may be so bold to draw an analogy, to Intelligent Design proponents. Since they are unable to publish in established scientific journals, they simply create their own alternative journals (with themselves as the peer reviewers). Then they get to claim their ideas are "peer-reviewed and published."

Are there any contemporary scientists investigating FE ideas and publishing those ideas in established journals? I honestly do not know.

Also, I am confused how you think quantum mechanics offers a different mechanism for gravity. Would you please elaborate on what this mechanism is? Thank you in advance!

I leave you with a quote from our favorite source:

"The theory of relativity is considered to be self-consistent, is consistent with many experimental results, and serves as the basis of many successful theories like quantum electrodynamics. Therefore, fundamental criticism (like that of Herbert Dingle, Louis Essen, Petr Beckmann, Maurice Allais and Tom van Flandern) has not been taken seriously by the scientific community, and due to the lack of quality of many critical publications (found in the process of peer review) they were rarely accepted for publication in reputable scientific journals. Just as in the 1920s, most critical works are published in small publications houses, alternative journals (like "Apeiron" or "Galilean Electrodynamics"), or private websites. Consequently, where criticism of relativity has been dealt with by the scientific community, it has mostly been in historical studies."
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: Tom Bishop on October 30, 2018, 02:52:14 AM
Quantum Mechanics says that gravity is mediated by a sub-atomic particle known as the graviton. That should have been taught to you in school, in your studies for your physics degree. Why are you asking me?

GR cannot predict the position of the planets, and is not used: https://wiki.tfes.org/Astronomical_Prediction_Based_on_Patterns

GR cannot describe the movement and motion of the galaxies: https://wiki.tfes.org/Problems_of_the_Galaxies

GR cannot seem to do anything of importance.

What good is it? It GR a gravitational lensing simulator?

Gravitational Lensing was known about long before Einstein ever published his theory. How do we know that he didn't tailor his theory to predict one of the very few things it asserts to predict?
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: markjo on October 30, 2018, 03:46:01 AM
Quantum Mechanics says that gravity is caused by an undiscovered sub-atomic particle known as the graviton.
Actually, QM doesn't say that at all.  You're probably thinking about quantum gravity, which is an attempt to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity.

GR cannot predict the position of the planets: https://wiki.tfes.org/Astronomical_Prediction_Based_on_Patterns
Not true.  One of the first predictions of GR was an accurate description of the precession of Mercury's orbit where Newton's gravity fell short.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/einstein-general-relativity-mercury-orbit

GR cannot describe the movement and motion of the galaxies: https://wiki.tfes.org/Problems_of_the_Galaxies
Again, not true.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.07491

GR cannot seem to do anything of importance.
Do you think that planet orbits and galaxy rotations are important?  ???

What good is it?
Well, it's quite handy if you rely on GPS, among other things.
https://www.iflscience.com/physics/4-examples-relativity-everyday-life/

It GR a gravitational lensing simulator?

Gravitational Lensing was known about long before Einstein ever published his theory. How do we know that he didn't tailor his theory to predict one of the very few things it asserts to predict?
Gravitational lensing may have been observed before GR, but was it predictable?
Title: Re: Albert Einstein: Father of the Universal Accelerator
Post by: QED on October 30, 2018, 05:14:38 AM
Quantum Mechanics says that gravity is mediated by a sub-atomic particle known as the graviton. That should have been taught to you in school, in your studies for your physics degree. Why are you asking me?

GR cannot predict the position of the planets, and is not used: https://wiki.tfes.org/Astronomical_Prediction_Based_on_Patterns

GR cannot describe the movement and motion of the galaxies: https://wiki.tfes.org/Problems_of_the_Galaxies

GR cannot seem to do anything of importance.

What good is it? It GR a gravitational lensing simulator?

Gravitational Lensing was known about long before Einstein ever published his theory. How do we know that he didn't tailor his theory to predict one of the very few things it asserts to predict?

"Quantum Mechanics says that gravity is mediated by a sub-atomic particle known as the graviton. That should have been taught to you in school, in your studies for your physics degree. Why are you asking me?"

Well, I am asking you because the graviton is a hypothetical particle which presumably mediates the force of gravity at a quantum scale, but has never been observed. Since you adhere to the zetetic school of thought, why do you reference a hypothetical particle without empirical support? No physicist presumes its existence, but we instead search for clues to the possibility. It is as though you choose not to distinguish between theoretical definition and empirical verification. I would imagine a zetetic to be superb at such distinctions. But alas...

"GR cannot predict the position of the planets, and is not used: https://wiki.tfes.org/Astronomical_Prediction_Based_on_Patterns

GR cannot describe the movement and motion of the galaxies: https://wiki.tfes.org/Problems_of_the_Galaxies

GR cannot seem to do anything of importance.

What good is it? It GR a gravitational lensing simulator?"

Well, it looks like I have struck a chord. GR does indeed predict the positions of planets, and is used to describe the precession of Mercury, which is the only planet to experience GR effects that are measurable by theory. So I really do not understand what you are trying to say. It is as though you have not bothered to understand GR at all. You DO understand how GR affects planets, yes?

The links you cite point towards the issue of dark energy. In doing this, you have used an argument of ignorance: namely, that the lack of current theories to completely atone for galactic dynamics is somehow evidence for FE theory.

It is not. A lack of evidence does not constitute evidence for the contrary. This is basic logic.

You fail to recognize that the entire structure which posits this "hole" in the theory is based in physics. In essence, what you are saying is:

1) Your theory describes most phemonema
2) There is a hole in your theory
3) Your theory is best positioned to answer that hole, as it has done many times in the past, reconciling the issue
4) But instead, believe my theory which has no empirical support.

Is it any wonder why you do not publish?