Einstein's Blunder?

[Shaun1405241546 0]

I read that length contraction (a result from the special theory of relativity) is invisible. This was only discovered in 1955. Isn't it strange that this went unnoticed for 50 years!

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

Well it would have been so good if you had also told that from where you read it because most of the people are fans of Albert Einstein and would not believe your comments withourt any proof. Can you proof what you are saying ?

[yordan 10]

I read that length contraction (a result from the special theory of relativity) is invisible. This was only discovered in 1955. Isn't it strange that this went unnoticed for 50 years!

I guess that the word "invisble" here stands for "is neglectible and hardly measurable in normal conditions of speed when staying inside the planet Earth".lenght contraction will be visible as soon as we will be able to have simultaneously an observer on a fixed referential talking with an observer in a mobile object moving at a speed near to the speed of light in our universe.
Does this clarify your question, or should we stay with the statement "not measurable" or "invisible" ?
Regards
Yordan

[Sim0ne 0]

Usually when people talk about Einsteins biggest blunder they talk about him not liking his gravitational constant - something that he had to incoorporate to make the expansion of the universe fit with his general relativity theory - and fit with what was already known about gravity today,
the gravitational constant can be see as something that work against gravity. Today they again really need this constant to explain that the universe is in fact not only expanding but expanding acellerated!. Major interessting stuff

I read that length contraction (a result from the special theory of relativity) is invisible. This was only discovered in 1955. Isn't it strange that this went unnoticed for 50 years!

[grim reaper1666 0]

this topic just confuses me there is nothing that actually has a link to the information on this it would be easier if there was. there isn't anything thats can work against gravity rockets and planes just create a large amount of thrust to get of the ground. the space shuttle alone goes between mach 10 and mach 25 when breaking out of the atmosphere. thats 7680 mph - 19200 mph. that is just some imense speed so that can't be counted as a anti-gravity because gravity still effects it. anti gravity has to disobey gravity with out generating upward thrust. even repelling magnets don't count as tested on mythbusters.

[mitchellmckain 0]

Usually when people talk about Einsteins biggest blunder they talk about him not liking his gravitational constant - something that he had to incoorporate to make the expansion of the universe fit with his general relativity theory - and fit with what was already known about gravity today,the gravitational constant can be see as something that work against gravity. Today they again really need this constant to explain that the universe is in fact not only expanding but expanding acellerated!. Major interessting stuff

This is not quite correct. The quantity involved is called the cosmological constant NOT gravitational constant, and here is the correct explanation of what happened:

When Einstein derived his gravitational field equations in General Relativity he realized that the solutions of these equations would not not be stable and so going with the standard scientific dogma of the day that the universe was in some kind of steady state (i.e. always existing) he added a constant to his field equations in order to make a stable solution of them possible.

When it was discovered that all distant object were receding from us and thus that the universe was apparently expanding, Einstein naturally kicked himself and said that this was the biggest mistake of his career -- and so it most definitely was indeed. He accepted the assumptions of the scientific community rather than going with what his own theory was telling him straight to his face and if he had only taken this seriously he could have really counted a really big coup on the scientific community by predicting that the universe was either contracting or expanding.

[grim reaper1666 0]

dont forget for starters it was a theory and as we know if you make a theory you should test it to make sure its right. testing always comes in handy otherwise it would be like calling a apple a chocolate bar when there a big difference between the two. some thing is not right just because your smart it needs testing and in a way thats what einstein did tested his theory found his mistakes and fixed them.

[Skepticus 0]

,

dont forget for starters it was a theory and as we know if you make a theory you should test it to make sure its right. testing always comes in handy otherwise it would be like calling a apple a chocolate bar when there a big difference between the two. some thing is not right just because your smart it needs testing and in a way thats what einstein did tested his theory found his mistakes and fixed them.

WTF? I don´t know quite where to begin with this. Perhaps you should consult a basic science text regarding the accepted scientific definition of the word theory. It does not mean speculative conjecture as you have implied by your usage here. Theory in scientific parlance is the most rigorous and confirmed of all ideas. An idea passes from speculative conjecture, or hypothesis on to become a working conjecture or theory, precisely because it has been successfully tested.

 

¨some thing is not right just because your [sic] smart it needs testing¨

 

I´m not sure who you are positing this as being good advice for. Scientists long before Einstein´s day knew this very well, but that is not relevant to the topic of discussion here.

 

¨in a way thats what einstein [sic] did tested his theory found his mistakes and fixed them¨

 

Sorry, but that is precisely what Einstein did NOT do. Relativity had long been tested, accepted and used in service of much more rigorous scientific understanding, while still one of it´s implications, a consequence of cosmological expansion had languished, because Einstein errantly contrived an ad-hoc constant, called the cosmological constant, to sidestep an inconsistency that followed from the prevalent assumption of a ´steady state´ of space. Einstein, regarded this as the greatest blunder of his career (whatever the OP is referring too). Whilst discovering this and fixing it fell to other cosmologists.

[slidstream 0]

It was an amazing breakthrough to even make the theory, and you can't insult one man for not realizing everything about it. We are still finding information on age old math theorems, so I think we can give him some slack.