Re: Wikipedia crackpottey

On 11/13/2024 04:55 AM, ProkaryoticCaspaseHomolog wrote:

On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 9:26:34 +0000, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
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You may all be interested in an article at
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problems_with_Einstein%27s_general_theory_of_relativity
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that presents some of the ideas we hear from the crackpots here. It's
signed with a pseudonym, but I don't think it's the work of one of our
local crackpots because it's better written. It's currently under
consideration for deletion:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Problems_with_Einstein%27s_general_theory_of_relativity
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Thank you! I'm already somewhat familiar with this editor (who appears
reasonably reliable when NOT editing relativity articles) and added my
delete vote.
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I find it interesting that the majority of crackpots are crackpots in
only a limited range of topics. They can be quite competent in other
areas. Examples abound, even among Nobelists: Montagnier, Mullis,
Shockley, Pauling etc. come quickly to mind.

In "Sidelights on Relativity", Einstein writes an "Ether and
the Theory of Relativity".
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7333
"This dualism still confronts us in unextenuated form ...."
"Since such fields also occur in vacuo—i.e. in free ether—
the ether also appears as bearer of electromagnetic fields.
The ether appears indistinguishable in its functions from
ordinary matter."
"As to the mechanical nature of the Lorentzian ether,
it may be said of it, in a somewhat playful spirit,
that immobility is the only mechanical property of
which it has not been deprived by H. A. Lorentz."
"We may assume the existence of an ether; only we
must give up ascribing a definite state of motion to it, ...."
"... there is a weighty argument to be adduced in favour
of the ether hypothesis."
[ Heh, "weighty". ]
"Mach’s idea finds its full development in the ether
of the general theory of relativity."
[ General Relativity "rescuing" Special Relativity, .... ]
"As to the part which the new ether is to play in
the physics of the future we are not yet clear.
We know that it determines the metrical relations
in the space-time continuum ...."
"Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general
theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities;
in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether."
-- Albert Einstein, 1920
[Einstein separates the spacial and spatial,
SR is local, SR is weak, and GR is first, and
from it derived SR, not the other way around. ]