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Geocentric vs heliocentric universe issue is an interesting example, because the geocentric version is not actually wrong, the whole point of the general relati
by chr1 8y ago
Geocentric vs heliocentric universe issue is an interesting example, because the geocentric version is not actually wrong, the whole point of the general relativity principle is that it geocentric an equally valid viewpoint.
The trick was understanding that circles+epicycles around earth are in fact equivalent earth and everything else rotating around some other point. Which is a relatively easy insight with analytical geometry, but is hard to see without it, and people noticed it only after they had more detailed data, and had to describe epicycles for ellipses instead of simple circles.
So if this teaches us something, it is that most likely we already have all the data that we need, we just need to look at it differently. But to look at things differently we need more math, and more experiments.
- XorNot 8y agoThe Relativity of Wrong is worth reading here. No one proved heliocentrism without first showing they could recover the epicycles from the heliocentric model.
- davrosthedalek 8y agoThe funny part is, both geocentric and heliocentric is wrong. The sun and the planets all rotate around the barycenter. None of them is special.
- chr1 8y agoThe orbits being ellipses instead of circles, center of mass being different from center of sun, precession because of general relativity effects, are all small corrections, and as described in Asimov's relativity of wrong suggested by the sibling comment, they only add detail to the picture. The question of geocentric vs heliocentric is different, because it is about looking at the same data in a different way. All the corrections can be added in geocentric model as well, but everything looks much more complicated in it. It is very similar to the formulation of classical mechanics in terms of least action principle. Both formulations make the same predictions, but least action principle leads to a simpler formulation of quantum mechanics: Feynman's path integrals.
- davrosthedalek 8y agoYou need the same corrections in a true heliocentric model as well, they are just smaller. The true leap in understanding comes when you realize that none of the objects is special, none of them is the true center, they all follow the same rules. That's where the simplification of the theory happens.