Quote:
Originally Posted by AGarvin
I think your a bit confused Alex as to what both Einstiens and Newtons theories are actually saying.
GR is a geometric theory that describes how the presence of mass/energy, momentum etc ... affects the shape of said geometry. The theory uses a particular type of geometry (Riemannian geometry) that allows "space" to curve. However it IS NOT saying that space curves in the real physical sense, it is simply treating space as though it curves. This is a very important distinction to make. We don't even know what space physically is, we don’t have a theory to say what space physically is and therefore cannot say whether it can really physically curve or not. This misconception also appears when folks talk about "expanding space" in cosmology. A more accurate term is "expanding universe" as we cannot say whether space is really physically expanding either (GR uses the concept of comoving coordinates to describe what is often misleadingly termed expanding space). Both Newtonian mechanics and GR will arrive at the same results in cases of low gravitational potential, but one treats gravity as a force and the other treats it as a consequence of geometric curvature. So which is correct? Both are.
It is perfectly valid Alex for you to propose a theory that treats gravity as a "push" force, but your theory needs to provide the mathematical foundation that allows me calculate how fast a tennis ball will drop when I let it go, or what path my spacecraft will follow as I do a fly-by of Jupiter. I suspect however that what your suggesting is that gravity in the real physical sense is a push and I don’t think you realize the magnitude of such a statement.
Andrew.
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Valid observation and I agree absolutley with your view of "space time" and my point is and has been..GR is geometry finally..it seeks to descibe space from this position..fair enough but as you say and as I say it says nothing of the make up of space... I say space is a flow in the physical sence that provides a pressure in effect to do the work of gravity.
I simply say I can "see" how push can work..a one way message requiring no feed back or communication between bodies in effect...attraction does not work for me and I have never found any explaination of how attraction can work..I say it cant..I cant prove that... but I bet there is no one who can come up with how attraction works..well if no one knows how it works how can it be used as explaination with such casual regard?
Thank for your input to this thread it is great to see
alex
