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| Robert L. Oldershaw... |
 Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:31 am |
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Guest
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I had planned to add this story to my pre-existing gravitational
coupling "constant" thread at the "CosmoCoffee Blog", but the
thread seems to have been censored and removed. Well, it
was a good run. About 75 posts and about 2200 views.
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In 1955 a conference was organized in Italy to celebrate
"Fifty Years Of Relativity". Einstein was invited, but could
not attend because of health reasons. Instead, he wrote up
an essay on his most recent efforts at further generalizing
General Relativity and formulating a unified theory that would
incorporate electromagnetism and atomic phenomena.
In this essay he noted that a general property of the unified
field equations, one that kept appearing and could not be
avoided, was the fact of solutions that were "similar, but not
congruent". In modern terms, it seemed that self-similar
solutions were generic to a more unified relativity.
But, he said, we know the atoms have definite sizes
and masses, and one does not find atoms that are
1.2 or 2.5 times bigger than the familiar ones. This
paradox between the intrinsic self-similarity of a more
unified relativity and the the apparently absoluteness of
scale in nature bothered Einstein greatly. He said it
might mean he was totally on the wrong track.
One thing he had not considered was discrete self-similarity.
There were no atoms that were 2.5 times bigger than "normal",
but might there be atoms that were 5.2 x 10^17 times bigger.
For example a neutron star is 5.2 x 10^17 times bigger than
an atomic nucleus and a galaxy is 5.2 x 10^17 times bigger
than a neutron star. This discrete self-similarity might be
consistent with observation - and solve Einstein's paradox.
If Einstein had lived long enough, I think he would have
come around to developing this idea. Alas, he died not long
after writing the essay. So his last student has taken up the
quest for that unified description of nature based on
discrete self-similarity.
Is that really so radical [unacceptable]?
Seems like sensible, testable science to me.
RLO
www.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw |
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| VICTOR... |
| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:39 am |
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On 10 Nov, 17:31, "Robert L. Oldershaw" <rlolders... at (no spam) amherst.edu>
wrote:
[quote]I had planned to add this story to my pre-existing gravitational
coupling "constant" thread at the "CosmoCoffee Blog", but the
thread seems to have been censored and removed. Well, it
was a good run. About 75 posts and about 2200 views.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1955 a conference was organized in Italy to celebrate
"Fifty Years Of Relativity". Einstein was invited, but could
not attend because of health reasons. Instead, he wrote up
an essay on his most recent efforts at further generalizing
General Relativity and formulating a unified theory that would
incorporate electromagnetism and atomic phenomena.
In this essay he noted that a general property of the unified
field equations, one that kept appearing and could not be
avoided, was the fact of solutions that were "similar, but not
congruent". In modern terms, it seemed that self-similar
solutions were generic to a more unified relativity.
But, he said, we know the atoms have definite sizes
and masses, and one does not find atoms that are
1.2 or 2.5 times bigger than the familiar ones. This
paradox between the intrinsic self-similarity of a more
unified relativity and the the apparently absoluteness of
scale in nature bothered Einstein greatly. He said it
might mean he was totally on the wrong track.
One thing he had not considered was discrete self-similarity.
There were no atoms that were 2.5 times bigger than "normal",
but might there be atoms that were 5.2 x 10^17 times bigger.
For example a neutron star is 5.2 x 10^17 times bigger than
an atomic nucleus and a galaxy is 5.2 x 10^17 times bigger
than a neutron star. This discrete self-similarity might be
consistent with observation - and solve Einstein's paradox.
If Einstein had lived long enough, I think he would have
come around to developing this idea. Alas, he died not long
after writing the essay. So his last student has taken up the
quest for that unified description of nature based on
discrete self-similarity.
Is that really so radical [unacceptable]?
Seems like sensible, testable science to me.
RLOwww.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw
[/quote]
Hi,
i would like to read that essay. If you have a copy please send it ot
me, cause i think it serves my purposes. Regards,
Victor |
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| Robert L. Oldershaw... |
| Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:40 am |
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Guest
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On Nov 13, 5:39 am, VICTOR <victor.hera... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
[quote]Hi,
i would like to read that essay. If you have a copy please send it ot
me, cause i think it serves my purposes. Regards,
Victor-
[/quote]
Reference: Cinquant'anni di Relativita, 1905-1955; Prefazione di
Albert Einstein; editor: Mario Pantaleo; 1955; Florence; Editrice
Universitaria - Firenze.
You could try a web search on "Fifty Years of Relativity", or write to
the people who administer Einstein's papers (Princeton?).
I was able to get copies in German, Italian and English, but then I
was well-motivated to do so. You can be too.
RLO
www.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw |
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| VICTOR... |
| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 10:17 am |
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On 13 Nov, 18:40, "Robert L. Oldershaw" <rlolders... at (no spam) amherst.edu>
wrote:
[quote]On Nov 13, 5:39 am, VICTOR <victor.hera... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
i would like to read that essay. If you have a copy please send it ot
me, cause i think it serves my purposes. Regards,
Victor-
Reference: Cinquant'anni di Relativita, 1905-1955; Prefazione di
Albert Einstein; editor: Mario Pantaleo; 1955; Florence; Editrice
Universitaria - Firenze.
You could try a web search on "Fifty Years of Relativity", or write to
the people who administer Einstein's papers (Princeton?).
I was able to get copies in German, Italian and English, but then I
was well-motivated to do so. You can be too.
RLOwww.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw
[/quote]
Robert,
if you find a copy of it pls let me know. I will write to the people
at Princeton and see if i can get a copy. Regards,
Victor |
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| Robert L. Oldershaw... |
| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 1:47 pm |
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Guest
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On Nov 16, 3:17 pm, VICTOR <victor.hera... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
[quote]On 13 Nov, 18:40, "Robert L. Oldershaw" <rlolders... at (no spam) amherst.edu
wrote:
On Nov 13, 5:39 am, VICTOR <victor.hera... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
i would like to read that essay. If you have a copy please send it ot
me, cause i think it serves my purposes. Regards,
Victor-
Reference: Cinquant'anni di Relativita, 1905-1955; Prefazione di
Albert Einstein; editor: Mario Pantaleo; 1955; Florence; Editrice
Universitaria - Firenze.
You could try a web search on "Fifty Years of Relativity", or write to
the people who administer Einstein's papers (Princeton?).
I was able to get copies in German, Italian and English, but then I
was well-motivated to do so. You can be too.
RLOwww.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw
Robert,
if you find a copy of it pls let me know. I will write to the people
at Princeton and see if i can get a copy. Regards,
Victor
--------------------------------------------------------------------------[/quote]
What are you hoping to find in the essay?
RLO |
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