﻿ The Good Thing About Einstein's Relativity
The Good Thing About Einstein's Relativity
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Pentcho Valev
2017-06-01 08:41:05 UTC
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The good thing about Einstein's relativity is that it started as a DEDUCTIVE theory. There was plagiarism, one of the postulates was false, there were unstated (hidden) auxiliary hypotheses, a crucial argument was invalid - yet Einstein's 1905 special relativity, unlike Einstein's 1915 general relativity, CAN be called a theory:

W. H. Newton-Smith, THE RATIONALITY OF SCIENCE, p. 199: "By a theory I shall mean the deductive closure of a set of theoretical postulates together with an appropriate set of auxiliary hypotheses; that is, everything that can be deduced from this set."

Only a deductive theory (in physics, "non-deductive theory" is an oxymoron) can be falsified, either logically or experimentally. That is:

1. Arguments can be checked for validity.

2. The reductio-ad-absurdum procedure can be applied.

3. Showing, experimentally, that a postulate or a deduced consequence is false makes sense - the deductive structure allows one to interpret the falsehood in terms of the whole theory. In the absence of a deductive structure any falsehood remains insignificant - one can either ignore it or "fix" it by introducing some fudge factor.

Pentcho Valev
Pentcho Valev
2017-06-01 19:54:15 UTC
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For a deductive theory, demonstrating an absurdity implies that a postulate is false - the theory can be falsified in this way. For a non-deductive model (empirical concoction), demonstrating an absurdity has no consequences because there are no postulates. So in Einstein's general relativity we find the absurdity ("idiocy" is more precise) that the speed of light DECREASES as the light falls towards the source of gravity - in the gravitational field of the Earth the acceleration of falling photons is NEGATIVE, -2g. This is not deduced from postulates - the absurdity is a fudge factor Einstein and his mathematical friends had to introduce to make the gravitational redshift and gravitational time dilation compatible:

Albert Einstein: "Second, this consequence shows that the law of the constancy of the speed of light no longer holds, according to the general theory of relativity, in spaces that have gravitational fields. As a simple geometric consideration shows, the curvature of light rays occurs only in spaces where the speed of light is spatially variable."


"Contrary to intuition, the speed of light (properly defined) decreases as the black hole is approached."


"Specifically, Einstein wrote in 1911 that the speed of light at a place with the gravitational potential φ would be c(1+φ/c^2), where c is the nominal speed of light in the absence of gravity. In geometrical units we define c=1, so Einstein's 1911 formula can be written simply as c'=1+φ. However, this formula for the speed of light (not to mention this whole approach to gravity) turned out to be incorrect, as Einstein realized during the years leading up to 1915 and the completion of the general theory. [...] ...we have c_r =1+2φ, which corresponds to Einstein's 1911 equation, except that we have a factor of 2 instead of 1 on the potential term."

Einstein's general relativity is an empirical concoction (not even wrong) so the idea of falsification is totally irrelevant. In contrast, special relativity is deductive and can be falsified both logically (reductio ad absurdum) and experimentally.

The logical falsification of special relativity is easy because all consequences of Einstein's 1905 false light postulate are absurd. For instance, length contraction implies that unlimitedly long objects can gloriously be trapped, "in a compressed state", inside unlimitedly short containers:



"Einstein's Relativistic Train in a Tunnel Paradox: Special Relativity"



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