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THE POET AS SCIENTIST

THE POET AS SCIENTIST, THE POET AS SCIENTIST

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The Geek's Raven
[An excerpt, with thanks to Marcus Bales]

Once upon a midnight dreary,
fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bedsheets,
Still I sat there, doing spreadsheets:
Having reached the bottom line,
I took a floppy from the drawer.
Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command
But got instead a reprimand: it read "Abort, Retry, Ignore".

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Form input - by Günter Born

Thursday, January 06, 2022

What if Einstein had never developed the Theory of Relativity?

So, let's suppose, we have neither the Special Theory of Relativity -- positing the equivalence of matter and energy, E=(mc)**2 , and light as an absolute limit; nor, do we have the General Theory of Relativity, which uses the concepts of Special Relativity to develop a theory of Gravity in which space-time is curved by substantial masses of matter, by curving light. How does this change things? I suspect many people would tend to think this would mean we wouldn't have nuclear energy or atomic or hydrogen bombs. I doubt that, actually. Chemistry had already illustrated for centuries the energy contained in molecular bonds, and given the obvious strength of subatomic bonds, I suspect most scientists would have assumed enormous amounts of energy would be present in them, and that they could, potentially, represent an enormous source of energy. So, although Einstein may have popularized and facilitated the development of nuclear energy and bombs to some extent, I really don't think the Theory of Relativity is required, here. Many people believe that the Global Positioning System GPS, requires the Theory of Relativity. Not really. It just requires the Michelson-Morely experiment showing that light always travels at a fixed velocity. No need for matter-energy equivalence, or curvature of space-time. Einstein's Photoelectric Effect, which he received the Nobel Prize for, is certainly the basis for all laser technology. But, that doesn't have much, if anything to do with Relativity. Quantum Theory and Mechanics have been very important in developing solid state physics, transisters and the whole field of electronics -- computers, cell-phones etc. But, again, not much if anything to do with Relativity. Quantum Computing doesn't really have much to do with physics, at all. It's more of a mathematical construct. So, what has Relativity given us, exactly? Well, an enormous amount of research in theoretical physics and astrophysics, including some notable NASA space probes. And, we have the entire science fiction industry based on Relativity Theory -- the Star Trek franchise, Warp Drives, Wormholes, Time Travel etc. I believe even old H.P. Lovecraft wrote a science fiction story or two based on Relativity Theory, early in the twentieth century. And, of course, we have the absolute conviction that nothing can possibly travel faster than light. Anything else?

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