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What Einstein did with special relativity was solving well known problems with Newtonian mechanics, which is the exact reason it was a big deal at the time. Th
by Trombone12 10y ago
What Einstein did with special relativity was solving well known problems with Newtonian mechanics, which is the exact reason it was a big deal at the time.
The big shock was of course the way he solved it, not that there was a problem to be solved.
- baq 10y agoso if somebody thinks anomalous thrust from a microwave cavity is a problem, they should be working on finding a solution. it might be a systemic error, it might be a real effect.
- sfifs 10y agoSimilarly, the big problem with today's theoritical physics is that physicists are conjouring up stuff like dark energy and dark matter to "fit the gap" between theory and observation without any sound basis for their existence. Much like pre-copernican mathematicians conjoured up complex circular orbits orbiting circular orbits to explain planetary motion.
- gaur 10y ago> physicists are conjouring up stuff like dark energy and dark matter to "fit the gap" between theory and observation without any sound basis for their existence. Physicists are undertaking a wide range of experimental programs to look for more satisfying explanations of what underlies ΛCDM cosmology (which I guess is the "conjouring" [sic] that you are referring to). Such experiments could also show that ΛCDM cosmology is wrong or needs to be modified. But right now, ΛCDM cosmology does a pretty good job of explaining the data we have so far. I'm not sure what else you would have physicists do—should they just not talk about the fact that there's a relatively parsimonious framework that explains the large-scale behavior of the universe?