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Kurt's avatar

I'm 52.

I've heard stuff like this from lay people ever since I went to undergraduate school. People that have never even read a physics book, tell me how a physicist is supposed to be.

It is what it is. People simply make things up and then believe it. Nothing I can do about it.

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Jonathan's avatar

Is this your oblique way of acknowledging the theory of gravity--or general relativity, if you prefer--is based on nothing more than correlation?

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Kurt's avatar

Really? Now you want to debate physics with me?

So there was never any experiment with atomic clocks and planes?

There was never any experiment about muons hitting Earths surface?

There was never any experiment of gravitational lensing?

There was never any experiment with the perihelion of Mercury?

There was never any experiment of seeing stars behind the Sun because their light bent around the Sun?

No, no, it's all correlation. Because obviously, you can collect data on something you've never seen before and establish a correlation. That's obviously logical that I can collect data on something I have no idea exists and then establish a correlation.

That's how we found time dilates. Even though we had no idea that time dilates, we were still able to collect data on this thing that we had no idea existed and then establish a correlation.

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Jonathan's avatar

Correct. All based on correlation.

You do understand that correlations have predictive power, yes?

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Kurt's avatar

No one collected data on time dilation because no one had any idea it existed. You can't create a correlation with something you have no data for.

Think about how stupid you are being. You are claiming that this thing, which no one has any idea exists was correlated to something else. How can you correlate something that you have no idea exists?

Einstein didn't even use data. He applied the Lorentz transformations to Newtonian mechanics for special relativity. And then through sheer genius, with no data, only mathematics, he derived general relativity.

So not only are you stupid for thinking you can correlate to something that you have no idea exists, but it's also in contradiction with the historical record. Einstein wasn't looking for correlations, he derived mathematically, what must be true under a set of conditions.

According to you and your genius, I can correlate God to something. Even though I have no idea if God exists and have no data for God, I can apparently correlate that with something.

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