The Eclipse and Einsteinism

PSI Blog 20170823 The Eclipse and Einsteinism

The recent eclipse amounted to a big boost to gee-whiz science. Pros and amateurs vied for the opportunity to “prove Einstein right again.” My short definition of an Einsteinism is: “correct prediction; wrong reason.” Here is my entry in the Glossary of my forthcoming book “Infinite Universe Theory ”:

EINSTEINISM. “A statement or prediction that is true, but for the wrong reason.”^[1] Other, less preferred definitions are: 1) “a joke that becomes much less funny if it requires an explanation.”^[2] 2) “the fallacious and unscientific physical theory that consists of Einstein's writings in the field of the relativity theory and subsequent theoretical works that endorse it.”[3] 3) “the perturbation of language or perception in order to put a positive spin on some aspect of Einstein’s life. It may include distortion, omission, falsification, or corruption of the historic record in order to promote Einstein.”[4]

Measurements of light bending during an eclipse are great fun. Light, of course, is always bent when it encounters an atmosphere, just as it is when it enters water. That effect is known as refraction. Einstein predicted that his imaginary light particle would be affected by gravity and that the perfectly empty space it traveled through nevertheless was capable of being bent. None of this could possibly happen because Einstein’s imaginary photon supposedly was massless and empty space has no properties at all.

The folks attempting to “prove Einstein right” will have gotten some highly erratic measurements once again. That is because the Sun’s corona is highly variable:

Figure 37 This plate from the Eddington paper is a half-tone reproduction from one of the negatives taken with a 4”-lens at Sobral, Brazil. The corona prevented any observation of light bending in the plasma rim at the surface of the Sun (from Dyson, Eddington, and Davidson, 1920).[5]

Dowdy gives the correct interpretation:

Figure 36 Light waves from distant stars bend only in the plasma rim of the Sun due to refraction. They are unaffected by gravitation, contrary to the predictions of relativity (from Dowdye, 2010).^[6]

For the latest on no-nonsense physics and cosmology, see:

Borchardt, Glenn, 2017, Infinite Universe Theory: Berkeley, California, Progressive Science Institute, 327 p. [http://go.glennborchardt.com/IUTebook].

---

[1] http://thescientificworldview.blogspot.com/2014/01/neomechanics-of-massenergy.html

[2] Attributed to Ian James Hay at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Einsteinism

[3] http://en.rightpedia.info/w/Einsteinism

[4] Moody, Richard, Jr., 2009, The eclipse data from 1919: The greatest hoax in 20^th century science, 16th Natural Philosophy Alliance Conference, Storrs, CT, United States, p. 1-26 [http://tinyurl.com/h6ngd5b], p. 14.

[5] Dyson, F. W., Eddington, A. S., and Davidson, C., 1920, A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, v. 220, no. 571-581, p. 291-333 [http://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1920.0009], Plate 1.

^[6] Dowdye, Edward Henry, Jr., 2010, Findings Convincingly Show No Direct Interaction between Gravitation and Electromagnetism in Empty Vacuum Space, in Volk, G, Proceedings of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, 17th Conference of the NPA, 23-26 June, 2010: Long Beach, CA, Natural Philosophy Alliance, Mt. Airy, MD, v. 7, p. 131-136 [