Original Message: ----------------- From: Doug [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2007 18:36:35 -0800 To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Re: Endless Universe Made Possible By New Model
Klaus wrote: > Yup, but we've got indirect "evidence" already. >Not really. All we've got is that some of our pet theories don't work without it. You mean like F=ma? The use of dark energy as an explaination for accleration in the opposite direction of all known forces is fundamentally based on that. That's pretty well what it says. > > As for direct evidence, we don't have any at all. Not even for gravity. All > we notice is that things keep falling to the ground, and some people came up > with a fishy theory about "gravity". >We didn't invent gravity as a fudge factor to prove our theory that things fall to the >ground. But, it did have something that was considered in that light: spooky instantaneous action at a distance with no known mechanism. Further, the fudge factor of dark energy is more akin to the charge of the electron in QED or maybe the fudge factor used to explain the orbit of the moon for about 100 years before Laplace, I think, did the calculations that showed the consistancy of the moon's orbit with the predictions afforded by Newtonian gravitation. The expansion of the universe is accelerating. Dark energy is a means of expressing this in terms of force. I'm not sure what your difficulty is. Are you arguing that the expansion of the universe is not really accelerating, and that there were some unwarrented assumptions that went into these conclusions? Or, do you see a problem with describing this acceleration in terms of F=ma? Dan M. D'oh! Yup, this model helps us to > explain why things fall to the ground, but there is no way to find out the > real truth. And there will never be. Why not? Never is way to absolute for me. Especially on an SF list! > Meanwhile, cosmology and particle physics make darn intersting subjects to > discuss! ;-) Now _that_ we can agree on. -- Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
