Viddler

UBB Error
Your account has been banned or locked. This is a permanent ban. If the Administrator has specified a reason for this ban, you will find it below. 

Please use your back button to return to the previous page.

Re: Gravity does not suck or so I'm told. [Re: TITOR RIGHT]
Darby
Administrator
Senior Investigator


Registered: 05/15/01
Posts: 4461
Loc: Santa Barbara, CA
Johnm,

I don't see in your explanation of your understanding of the principle of equivalence where you disagree with Einstein. If you eliminate the problem of aerodynamics and place the entire experiment in a vacuum your feathers inside and outside the box will, as you state, accelerate at the same rate.

The principle that is being described is that if you have two boxes, one free falling in a gravitational field and another far out in space free of gravitation, the inside observers can't construct an experiment from within that will determine which situation they are in if they have no external clues.

The other side of the same experiment is to place one box on the surface of the Earth and the other far out in space but being towed by a ship that is accelerating at 1g. The situation is similar to the other experiment in that neither observer can formulate an experiment to determine which situation they are in if they have no external clues.

In both cases we should actually say that the observers can't make a determination based solely on first principles. The experiments are highly idealized. Real boxes on real planets or being pulled by real ships by real ropes will leave clues that can be discovered.
_________________________
E. W. "Darby" Darbyshire
Administrator - Anomalies.net
DarbyII@COX.net

Now, see that was not so hard, Darby, I knew you understood classical theoretical physics... Now are you going to explain to our young friend, why there is no “perfect vacuum”, wh