GENERAL RELATIVITY ABSOLUTENESS AND GENERAL RELATIVITY

The spaceship and the Galilee experiment Einstein upon seeing a man fall off of a roof concluded that during his fall no gravitational field exists. The person falling off of the roof will also have an absolute location change.

Just as time is a concept so too is space. It is not what is in the space or what effects happen within the space that defines it. If we design a coordinate system first and then place into it the universe, we keep our grid in place and let the matter move, as it does, through our grid. If light goes through a portion of our grid and is not completely straight, then this does not curve the space. The space is our mathematical coordinate system. It is unalterable. Three or more observers viewing Galilee's legendary experiment inside an accelerating spaceship would conclude that the spaceship moved absolute locations. The released objects in "free fall" will in fact change absolute locations as well. This is not an attempt to disagree with the concept of equivalence of accelerated motion and gravity. It is not true that the observer is justified in considering his own state as the state of rest. This is once again looking at things as only one observer. Viewed as the spaceship, the objects fall to the floor. Viewed as the objects, the floor rushes up to meet them. Viewed as a single observer, it is impossible to determine absolute locations. With four or more observers this situation takes on a different appearance. The Earth will move in its orbital path and revolve on its axis. The conclusion to be reached is that both objects are in motion and that neither is at rest. It would seem that the theory regarding one or two observers could more properly be called the theory of non -relativity since they deal with the concepts whereby relativity (or the relationship) to other references (points) is not known. The conclusion to be reached is that both objects are in motion and that neither is at rest.

Einstein proposed three experimental tests for the general theory of relativity - that gravity is the curvature of space and time. These are; (1) a slight bending of light in the gravitational field of the sun, (2) a small shift in the orbit of the planet of mercury, and (3) clocks should run slower in a gravity field. Other scientists first attempted to discount this discrepancy from Newton's law, arguing that dust around the sun or the possibility that the sun was not perfectly round was responsible. But the dust was never seen and the sun was round.

RELATIVE MOTION

The special theory, presented in 1905, deals only with objects or systems which are either moving at constant speed with respect to one another (un accelerated systems) or which are not moving at all (with a constant speed of zero). The first postulate stated simply, says that the ether cannot be detected. a stationary ether would possess absolute motion because it would be the one thing in the universe which would be motionless. But we have found that we can only detect relative motion. Hence we could not detect the ether. As Newton pointed out long ago, it is impossible to tell whether or a ship is moving through the water by any experiment performed inside the ship. Similarly, we here on earth cannot detect any motion of the earth by any experiment performed on the earth. It will never be possible to develop an instrument, however complicated, which will ever tell you anything more but that you are moving in respect to something else.

Although this is true, it may still be beneficial to able to know in what respect you are moving in relationship to something(s) else. In relation to three things fixed in position to one another, a great deal of information can be garnered. Not only your position in reference to the 3 fixed points, (in relation to one another) but your relationship to all other points in reference to the 3 fixed locations points. There is no heavenly body in our universe that we can use as a stationary reference point. (or location). This should preclude us from using three or reference points whose relationship to one another remains fixed, as a workable system. Granted the chosen reference points are themselves in motion, this however does not mean that information gained from this approach will not be of use.

The second postulate states that the velocity of light is always constant relative to an observer. The general theory treats objects or systems which are speeding up or slowing down with respect to one another (accelerated systems). Although Einstein also found as Newton had in 1687 that the planets orbits were ellipses, he found that they were not stationary, but were slowly rotating in space. Strictly speaking, since the elliptical orbits of the planets are all rotating, the orbits are really rosette patterns similar to the paths of the electrons about the nucleus in the Sommerfield theory. One of the theory of light says that light is made up of small particles called photons. These were considered to have mass, and it was reasoned that if they did, when light falls on a surface these photons would exert a pressure. This effect has been observed and is known as radiation pressure. To test the prediction of the general theory that light is deflected by a gravitation field, actually we would have to "weigh a beam of light." It is not possible to catch a lot of photons and pile them on a scale, as we could with bullets, since no one has yet succeeded in building a photon trap. (moreover, scientists today believe that the rest mass of the photon is zero!) So the photons must be weighed while in flight.

Why do scientists today believe that the rest mass of a photon is zero? Since they accept radiation pressure as an observed phenomena, they are saying then that a photon at rest has no mass, and when this massless "energy packet" is not at rest that it has somehow gained both mass from nothing and energy of acceleration. Where does this mass come from? It could only come from the conversion of energy into that mass. This would require additional energy to manifest mass whereas moving sunlight has increased both its mass and energy from that of the photon at rest.