in reply to Re^2: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science in thread Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science
SRT and GRT were still controversial indifferently of experimental proof because they were too "counterintuitive" for the mainstream.
Experiments don't necessary mean that a model is correct, many decades went into searching "better" models passing the very same experiments while contradicting RT.
Don't forget that Einstein's position to Quantum Theory was comparable. He didn't deny the results but opposed the statistical model.
"God does not play dice" ! ;)
Re^4: Organizational Culture (Part VII): Science
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 14, 2021 at 23:47 UTC
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> Don't forget that Einstein's position to Quantum Theory was comparable
Einstein's clever EPR paradox thought experiment was a fantastic contribution to Physics
that had Bohr and others stumped for 30 years ...
until out of nowhere, John Stewart Bell, an obscure physicist from Northern Ireland working at CERN in his day job,
concocts Bell's theorem in his spare time on the weekends!
So today we can do experimental tests of EPR.
To date, all tests have found that the hypothesis of local hidden variables is inconsistent with the way that physical systems do, in fact, behave.
That is, instantaneous "spooky action at a distance" (which Einstein felt to be obviously absurd) really happens!!
He (Albert Einstein) didn’t think the spooky action at a distance would be verified, but it was.
He thought that was somehow unphysical.
He presented this as an example of why quantum mechanics is probably wrong, but in fact it’s right.
-- Lawrence M. Krauss, quoted at Quantum_entanglement (wikiquote)
Update: Just to clarify, as noted at Faster than light communication: though quantum mechanics is non-local in the sense that distant systems can be entangled,
quantum entanglement does not allow any influence or information to propagate superluminally.
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> felt to be obviously absurd
And that's why he wasn't awarded the NP for RT. Too many felt that "bending space and time" was obviously too absurd to survive further scrutiny.
The compromise was to award him nevertheless, but for the photoelectric effect. :)
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> many felt that "bending space and time" was obviously too absurd to survive further scrutiny
Agreed. Einstein similarly felt it was obviously too absurd for nature to allow a black hole to exist -
despite it being predicted by his own equations! :)
The first exact solution of the Einstein field equations was provided,
not by Einstein, but Karl Schwarzschild, a German soldier stuck in a foxhole on the Russian front during WW1.
Schwarzchild further calculated the Schwarzschild radius, defining the event horizon of a Schwarzschild black hole.
Calculating the first exact solution of the Einstein field equations proved
more alluring than the mundane chore of computing artillery trajectories it seems.
Tragically, Schwarzschild did not survive the war.
Sadly,
Einstein mocked Belgian Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre's
"hypothesis of the primeval atom" (aka "Cosmic Egg" aka Big Bang theory)
with the cutting quote
"Your calculations are correct, but your grasp of physics is abominable"
... missing a golden opportunity to scoop Edwin Hubble by predicting an expanding universe.
Lemaitre took this opportunity
by publishing his expanding universe theory, despite Einstein's objections, and so
was (belatedly) recognized for predicting an expanding universe two years before Hubble, with
Hubble's Law now also known as the Hubble-Lemaitre Law
(not the Hubble-Einstein Law).
Wait, there's more tragedy!
To fit the then accepted model of a steady state universe, Einstein added the Cosmological constant to his field equations.
From Dark energy (wikipedia):
The cosmological constant was first proposed by Einstein as a mechanism to obtain a solution of the gravitational field equation that would lead to a static universe,
effectively using dark energy to balance gravity. Einstein gave the cosmological constant the symbol capital lambda.
Einstein stated that the cosmological constant required that 'empty space takes the role of gravitating negative masses which are distributed all over the interstellar space'.
The mechanism was an example of fine-tuning, and it was later realized that Einstein's static universe would not be stable:
local inhomogeneities would ultimately lead to either the runaway expansion or contraction of the universe.
After Einstein admitted his blunder by removing the cosmological constant (and deeply regretting adding it in the first place),
others later reinstated it
as a perfect way to describe the mysterious new Dark energy!!
You can't write this stuff. :)
Update Physics Today:
I heard Einstein say to Gamow about the cosmological constant, "That was my biggest blunder of my life" -- John Archibald Wheeler
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> that's why he wasn't awarded the NP for RT. Too many felt that "bending space and time" was obviously too absurd to survive further scrutiny.
> Don't forget that Einstein's position to Quantum Theory was comparable. He didn't deny the results but opposed the statistical model. "God does not play dice" ! ;)
Curiously, despite Quantum Theory out-weirding Relativity, the 1932 Nobel Prize
was awarded to Werner Heisenberg for the creation of Quantum mechanics!
Maybe the general tolerance of weirdness within the Nobel committee had softened by then.
Heisenberg was nominated for the Nobel prize by ... Einstein! ... which I felt showed great character,
given his deeply held "God does not play dice" views.
The infamous Bohr-Einstein debates, though insanely intense at times,
were also carried out in great spirit by both men.
Though Erwin Schrodinger also won a Nobel prize
for his famous wave equation (developed
during a romantic tryst on a skiing holiday), I was disappointed the committee didn't award him another for inventing
Schrodinger's Cat. :)
BTW, Schrodinger and Einstein shared a similar extreme discomfort with QM and seemed to be allies during
the many heated QM debates of the 1930s.
My favourite Nobel prize story though is
J J Thomson
winning the 1906 Nobel prize for proving the electron is a particle
and his son G P Thomson winning the 1937 Nobel prize for proving it's a wave! :)
This was the golden age of physics LanX and all played out in your backyard!
As a physics nut, I'm extremely envious because I'd love to visit Germany one day to tour all these historic sites ...
including Heligoland where Heisenberg formulated Quantum Mechanics -- have you ever been there?
I find it interesting that the two biggest QM breakthroughs, by Heisenberg and Schrodinger, were both made while on holiday.
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