# If Einstein got it all wrong - expert opinions needed **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2010, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026 "2010-05-11T08:53:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/121 "2010-05-15T05:13:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Not many wanted to answer my question, but have a huge need for defend curved space-time. That’s OK, but I didn’t ask for it. Now it seems that I have to use all my time to answer questions. No offense, but the reason people aren’t answering your questions is because your questions don’t make sense. The best we can do is state interesting things about physics that seem vaguely sort of related to the questions you’re trying to ask. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/122 "2010-05-15T05:13:19Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > It also allows for the sun to “burn” electrically since the contained qst packets are crossing into space from the sun and refracting again! I knew that when my hair stood on end out in the sun I wasn’t just imagining things. I guess when I hear it emitting sounds like the low screech of a power plant or high-tension wire, I’m not just hallucinating either. Since we all know that sound is a pure wave, it does not need a medium. “In space, no one can hear you scream” is a pure lie from the hollywood liberal elite. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/123 "2010-05-15T05:14:19Z")
We _have_ answered your question, i.e. we believe Einstein didn’t get it wrong. Why? Because he made predictions that could be tested. These predictions were tested and were found to hold in the actual Universe. It works, it explains the observed phenomena in a consistent way and predicted stuff that we found (in some cases almost a century later) to be true. You wanted “expert” opinions. You got them. And the experts say that Einstein didn’t get it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/124 "2010-05-15T05:22:05Z")
> [@Angua](#): > > You wanted “expert” opinions. You got them. The comic strips were the best part of this. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/125 "2010-05-15T05:39:51Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I knew that when my hair stood on end out in the sun I wasn’t just imagining things. I guess when I hear it emitting sounds like the low screech of a power plant or high-tension wire, I’m not just hallucinating either. Since we all know that sound is a pure wave, it does not need a medium. > > “In space, no one can hear you scream” is a pure lie from the hollywood liberal elite. Well they make science movies like “The Core” to keep us pacified. Or appalled, I keep mixing them up. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/126 "2010-05-15T11:40:13Z")
> [@katunari](#): > > “What if Einstein got it all wrong?” > Not many wanted to answer my question, but have a huge need to defend curved space-time. That’s OK, but I didn’t ask for it. Now it seems that I have to use all my time to answer questions. > > I agree - I had the same formula in mind. If radius doubles the intensity of light will be less (because you don’t want to create energy). Think the sphere as a soap bubble - the walls of it get weaker in relation to it’s size. Inverse-square-law. You see light only from your viewpoint and darkness everywhere else. I know that it’s difficult to get big spheres trough small holes, but shit happens. Of course there is not light everywhere, because of physical obstacles. > > I would be more than happy, if people just answered the original question. Okay, I’ll take a stab at answering the question of “What if Einstein got it all wrong?” If Einstein got it all wrong, then we are in the hands of a petty and capricious deity who has made an incomprehensible Universe. The petty and capricious part comes in because this deity has limited our minds and observations to make it seem that the Universe is understandable, and can be explained with some fairly simple mathematics. If Einstein got it partially wrong, and the universe his theories describes is just a sub-set of the “real” universe (in the same way that Newtonian physics describes what happens on a human scale of size and velocities) then his work will still be a useful short-cut to describe energy interactions in the relativistic universe. Anything can follow, logically, from a false premise. Therefore, “What if Einstein got it all wrong” leads to Superman, unicorns, the sky being the body of Nut, McDonald’s serving real food, and any other impossibilities the mind can imagine. It is not a fruitful path of armchair speculation; unless you have made an observation (or better yet, a series of observations) that cannot be explained by Einsteinian physics you have made no test. Saying that you can imagine that it could work this way, while displaying absolute ignorance of how things are actually seen to work, does not produce any useful feedback. ---
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/127 "2010-05-15T15:03:44Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Okay, I’ll take a stab at answering the question of “What if Einstein got it all wrong?” Take a glass of red wine and another one. Then write the previous message again. Newton did not see unicorns. Although he predicted the end of the world… ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/128 "2010-05-15T18:46:41Z")
> [@katunari](#): > > Do I sense a bit of hostility You haven’t presented anything to be hostile towards. You aren’t making any sense, you don’t understand the basic concepts that you are railing against. All you have done in this thread is write nonsense and be snarky towards people who are trying to point you in the right direction. ---
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/129 "2010-05-16T03:10:56Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > You haven’t presented anything to be hostile towards. You aren’t making any sense, you don’t understand the basic concepts that you are railing against. All you have done in this thread is write nonsense and be snarky towards people who are trying to point you in the right direction. I’m sorry if I seem snarky. Based on my Freudian mathematics and Wikipedia-level-of-Physics in my armchair this is the best I could come up with. I just take another glass of wine and vision more waves. It makes me happy. Light…gravity…all waves. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/130 "2010-05-16T03:41:52Z")
> [@katunari](#): > > Based on my Freudian mathematics and Wikipedia-level-of-Physics in my armchair this is the best I could come up with. I just take another glass of wine and vision more waves. It makes me happy. Light…gravity…all waves. It’s OK to not know a lot about physics. But you seem resistant to learning anything beyond your armchair physics. People are demonstrating that your ideas about light and gravity being all waves is demonstrably wrong. That idea doesn’t match up with verified observations. Science moves on, you seem resistant to doing so. ---
**Author:** ![komolono](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/komolono/32/532_2.png) [@komolono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komolono)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/131 "2010-05-21T19:37:29Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > It’s OK to not know a lot about physics. But you seem resistant to learning anything beyond your armchair physics. People are demonstrating that your ideas about light and gravity being all waves is demonstrably wrong. That idea doesn’t match up with verified observations. Science moves on, you seem resistant to doing so. I regret the reflector-part of this thread. Also English is not my native language. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/132 "2010-05-21T20:28:48Z")
> [@W E C](#): > > I regret the reflector-part of this thread. Also English is not my native language. Did you just create another account? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/133 "2010-05-21T20:55:16Z")
Reported, just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026/134 "2010-05-22T19:24:47Z")
> [@Animastryfe](#): > > Did you just create another account? Apparently so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-einstein-got-it-all-wrong-expert-opinions-needed/539026.md?page=6)