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2 thoughts on “A Letter to the President of Physics”
xkcd is just too funny.
Galileo and Newton postulated the fundamental indistinguishability of mass and weight. General Relativity postulated the Equivalence Principle (via Einstein’s elevator), that all local centers of mass vacuum free fall along identical (parallel-displaced) minimum action trajectories. Physicist or faery princess, present two lumps that falsify the EP and physics goes for a Burton. Experiment is definitive. Is that so hard?
1.7 solar-mass pulsar PSR J1903+0327 in a 95.17-day 0.437-eccentricity orbit with its 1.05 solar-mass star companion. 27% vs. 1.4×10^(-4)% gravitational binding energy, 1.8×10^11 vs. ~30 surface gees, 2×10^8 gauss vs. ~5 gauss magnetic field; superconductive compressed neutrons and exotica vs. proton-electron plasma; pulsar equatorial spin >11% lightspeed. That binary system validates the EP to the limits of measurement.
Consider left and right shoes challenging spacetime geometry with test mass geometry. Physics is dumbfounded where chemistry sees triviality. Chemically identical, enantiomorphic atomic mass distributions could falsify the EP without contradiction of any prior observation. Two trivial reductions to practice are opposed single crystal test masses of space groups P3(1)21 versus P3(2)21 quartz; opposed single crystal test masses of space groups P3(1) versus P3(2) glycine gamma-polymorph. Ask a crystallographer.
xkcd is just too funny.
Galileo and Newton postulated the fundamental indistinguishability of mass and weight. General Relativity postulated the Equivalence Principle (via Einstein’s elevator), that all local centers of mass vacuum free fall along identical (parallel-displaced) minimum action trajectories. Physicist or faery princess, present two lumps that falsify the EP and physics goes for a Burton. Experiment is definitive. Is that so hard?
1.7 solar-mass pulsar PSR J1903+0327 in a 95.17-day 0.437-eccentricity orbit with its 1.05 solar-mass star companion. 27% vs. 1.4×10^(-4)% gravitational binding energy, 1.8×10^11 vs. ~30 surface gees, 2×10^8 gauss vs. ~5 gauss magnetic field; superconductive compressed neutrons and exotica vs. proton-electron plasma; pulsar equatorial spin >11% lightspeed. That binary system validates the EP to the limits of measurement.
Consider left and right shoes challenging spacetime geometry with test mass geometry. Physics is dumbfounded where chemistry sees triviality. Chemically identical, enantiomorphic atomic mass distributions could falsify the EP without contradiction of any prior observation. Two trivial reductions to practice are opposed single crystal test masses of space groups P3(1)21 versus P3(2)21 quartz; opposed single crystal test masses of space groups P3(1) versus P3(2) glycine gamma-polymorph. Ask a crystallographer.
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/erotor1.jpg
Somebody should look.