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Relatedly, before general relativity, people already knew something was wrong with Newton's theory of gravity from observing the orbit of Mercury, which didn't
by zeven7 4y ago
Relatedly, before general relativity, people already knew something was wrong with Newton's theory of gravity from observing the orbit of Mercury, which didn't follow the theory accurately. At that time Mercury, being so close to the Sun, was an extreme condition that showed the flaws in the theory.
The fact that general relativity continues to hold up to every observation we can make is remarkable.
- albrewer 4y agoI'd be willing to bet that the discrepancy is something that we generally consider invariant but in reality should be a ratio between two things that are very large, but get bigger or smaller at _slightly_ different rates depending on the scale or distances you're working with. Granted, I only ever got as far as E&M physics in college so I could be way off here but that scenario has turned up so many times in history.
- lordnacho 4y agoCould it happen that the universe simply never provides us with the required evidence? Eg if there's an anomaly but only when something that never happens happens. Like a large enough mass/charge/etc or some flavor of unlikely coincidental occurrence, like an eclipse is a bit of a coincidence.
- drewrv 4y agoI've heard it said as "The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us". It's possible that the events where the two theories diverge will always be out of reach for us to observe.