Posted on 07/17/2005 10:35:09 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets
A Lexington man's contribution to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity was celebrated last week at the Westford observatory where the theory was put to the test 40 years ago.
About 100 invited guests at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory in Westford listened as Dr. Irwin Shapiro discussed the fourth test of Einstein's general theory of relativity. Einstein published three of his famous articles in 1905, including the theory of relativity. The World Year of Physics is commemorating the centennial anniversary of Einstein's most accomplished year, along with remembering Shapiro's experiment.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I have a copy of Jim Evan's "Radio Astronomy" which is something of a classic. Shapiro authored a chapter explaining this experiment in detail. The effect was dramatic and confirmed the predictions of General Relvativity.
The three classical test of General Relativity are (this will be on the test):
1. Deflection of starlight during an eclipse.
2. Graviational redshift of massive stars.
3. Precession of the perihelion of Mercury.
The increased time delay in radar returns as the interior planets move behind sun is the fourth "classical" test of General Relativity. BTW, some space track radars account for Special Relativity when calculating Doppler shift, although many of the people building and programming them are not aware of this fact. The effects of Special Relativity are just on the edge of being detectable in space track radar. There should also be a very tiny effect due to Special Relavitity, but as far as I know no one worries about it.
Here's an interesting tidbit about Einstein's life: he performed poorly in the public schools.
He also performed poorly in college... Academics weren't his thing.
ping
BTTT
Not all that badly, actually. No true genius will ever be revealed by any cookie-cutter educational system. Some are academically successful, Kepler, Copernicus and Gauss for instance. Some have no academic record to speak of like Edison, Heaviside or Lincoln. Most simply do not and cannot fully flower in any academic enviroment. I am convinced that none of my high school math or science teachers, with one clear exception, had anything worthwhile to say about math or science. My high school English teachers were at best semiliterate.
So, then, he wasn't any smarter than...
Bush?
Different smarts - some people have an inate gift for politics, some for math. Rarely do the two combine.
Has the Nobel Society heard about this Einstein guy, yet?
He received the 1921 awardrd for the explaining the photoelectric effect, not for Relativity.
I understood he was snubbed. Something I recently learned.
The Nobel isn't usually noble, is it?
Nope.. the Nobel Prize is a bunch of Swedish guys ideas on what BLONDE, isn't..
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