Posted on 02/20/2014 3:47:32 PM PST by Kevmo
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-First-Test-That-Proves-General-Theory-of-Relativity-Wrong-20259.shtml
According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, a moving mass should create another field, called gravitomagnetic field, besides its static gravitational field. This field has now been measured for the first time and to the scientists' astonishment, it proved to be no less than one hundred million trillion times larger than Einstein's General Relativity predicts.
According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, a moving mass should create another field, called gravitomagnetic field, besides its static gravitational field. This field has now been measured for the first time and to the scientists' astonishment, it proved to be no less than one hundred million trillion times larger than Einstein's General Relativity predicts.
This gravitomagnetic field is similar to the magnetic field produced by a moving electric charge (hence the name "gravitomagnetic" analogous to "electromagnetic"). For example, the electric charges moving in a coil produce a magnetic field - such a coil behaves like a magnet. Similarly, the gravitomagnetic field can be produced to be a mass moving in a circle. What the electric charge is for electromagnetism, mass is for gravitation theory (the general theory of relativity).
A spinning top weights more than the same top standing still. However, according to Einstein's theory, the difference is negligible. It should be so small that we shouldn't even be capable of measuring it. But now scientists from the European Space Agancy, Martin Tajmar, Clovis de Matos and their colleagues, have actually measured it. At first they couldn't believe the result.
"We ran more than 250 experiments, improved the facility over 3 years and discussed the validity of the results for 8 months before making this announcement. Now we are confident about the measurement," says Tajmar. They hope other physicists will now conduct their own versions of the experiment so they could be absolutely certain that they have really measured the gravitomagnetic field and not something else. This may be the first empiric clue for how to merge together quantum mechanics and general theory of relativity in a single unified theory.
"If confirmed, this would be a major breakthrough," says Tajmar, "it opens up a new means of investigating general relativity and its consequences in the quantum world."
The experiment involved a ring of superconducting material rotating up to 6 500 times a minute. According to quantum theory, spinning superconductors should produce a weak magnetic field. The problem was that Tajmar and de Matos experiments with spinning superconductors didn't seem to fit the theory - although in all other aspects the quantum theory gives incredibly accurate predictions. Tajmar and de Matos then had the idea that maybe the quantum theory wasn't wrong after all but that there was some additional effect overlapping over their experiments, some effect they neglected.
What could this other effect be? They thought maybe it's the gravitomagnetic field - the fact that the spinning top exerts a higher gravitational force. So, they placed around the spinning superconductor a series of very sensible acceleration sensors for measuring whether this effect really existed. They obtained more than they bargained for!
Although the acceleration produced by the spinning superconductor was 100 millionths of the acceleration due to the Earth's gravitational field, it is a surprising one hundred million trillion times larger than Einstein's General Relativity predicts. Thus, the spinning top generated a much more powerful gravitomagnetic field than expected.
Now, it remains the need for a proper theory. Scientists can also now check whether candidate theories, such as the string theory, can describe this experiment correctly. Moreover, this experiment shows that gravitational waves should be much more easily to detect than previously thought.
Rest assured you relativity denier that the general theory is settled science. :) :)
"according to Einstein's theory, the difference is negligible" Negligible? Heck I got audited by the IRS for payroll difference of $1.47 between State and Federal on a 6 figure payroll. That should have been negligible too.
Quite often when measurements and theory do not match
the issue is the quality, accuracy and methodology of
the instrumentation and how they are used that are the
issue. This will need to be looked at long and hard.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the announcement that
a particle actually might be moving FTL....it was then
announced that NO....we effed up on the instrumentation.
Time will tell.
Friend of mine when I lived in NM was a Senior Research Physicist at John's Hopkins before I met him. He told me in the 1980's the laws of physics do not tie. He said there would be a rethinking of the assumptions because they could not account for the mass to energy theory. But I am not impressed at the "discoveries" of the "European Space Agency" and their measurements. This sounds like a "popular science" article.
Yahbut... when was the last time you heard that measurement and theory were off by 20 orders of magnitude across 450 experiments?
Einstein tried to describe gravity as a kind of a four dimensional differential geometry thing. There is no way to start with that and believe that gravity ever could have changed three or four to one near the surface of our own planet but it’s an easy demonstration that it has. The largest dinosaurs would be crushed by their own weight in our present gravity.
Interesting that they spun the superconductor at 6500rpm.
This is well within the operating range of many car engines.
I would have expected the rotation to have had to been much faster...
Global Warming.
(-:
Last time I heard of some weird results of spinning superconductors was from Podkletnov. He claimed to see gravity reduction of 2% above the superconductor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Podkletnov
Maybe they were measuring wind from the moving object, or something.
The hard drive on my computer spins at 7200rpm. 6500rpm is therefore no big deal.
17 mile circumference X 6500 revs/min = 110,500 mi/min
6,630,000 mi/hr
Global Warming. (-:
-------------------------------------
LOL!
It is when the path is 17 miles long....
NO. NO. NO. That's not how science is done nowadays. You first have a Hypothesis, then build a computer model then gather the data to test the model and if the data doesn't agree with the Hypothesis you " lose" the data and then call people Deniers who think your hypothesis is nuts.
I agree, but isn't it exciting to see scientist actually check and double check, improve methodology and instruments... then put the findings out to critical peer review! So refreshing after Global warming settled science.
NO. NO. NO. That’s not how science is done nowadays. You first have a Hypothesis, then build a computer model then gather the data to test the model and if the data doesn’t agree with the Hypothesis you “ lose” the data and then call people Deniers who think your hypothesis is nuts.
***That’s why “science progresses one funeral at a time”. Einstein’s dead and cannot call these guys’ results nuts. What I do not understand is why this wasn’t totally jumped on with another replication measurement because any physicist who proves an aspect of Einstein’s theory wrong will have his name written in the history books.
Speaking of Bush, remember the Dems claim that under Bush, we were losing 750,000 jobs per month.
But now the Dems claim that being out-of-work is a good thing - lets one write poetry, or start a business, ...
So was that 750,000 lost jobs under Bush now a good thing?
Inquiring minds want to know?
scientist actually check and double check, improve methodology and instruments... then put the findings out to critical peer review!
***They sure seem to be taking their time at it. This article is from 2006.
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