🚀 go-pugleaf

Pentcho Valev wrote:
> http://vaghelasv.com/Documents/Stephen.Hawking.A.Brief.History.Of.Time.pdf
> Stephen Hawking: "Einstein�s prediction of light deflection could not
> be tested immediately in 1915, because the First World War was in
> progress, and it was not until 1919 that a British expedition,
> observing an eclipse from West Africa, showed that light was indeed
> deflected by the sun, just as predicted by the theory. This proof of a
> German theory by British scientists was hailed as a great act of
> reconciliation between the two countries after the war. It is ionic,
> therefore, that later examination of the photographs taken on that
> expedition showed the errors were as great as the effect they were
> trying to measure. Their measurement had been sheer luck, or a case of
> knowing the result they wanted to get, not an uncommon occurrence in
> science."
> 
> http://www.cieletespace.fr/evenement/relativit-les-preuves-taient-fausses
> "Relativit�: les preuves �taient fausses.....Le monde entier a cru
> pendant plus de cinquante ans � une th�orie non v�rifi�e. Car, nous le
> savons aujourd�hui, les premi�res preuves, issues notamment d�une
> c�l�bre �clipse de 1919, n�en �taient pas. Elles reposaient en partie
> sur des manipulations peu avouables visant � obtenir un r�sultat connu
> � l�avance, et sur des mesures entach�es d�incertitudes, quand il ne
> s�agissait pas de fraudes caract�ris�es."
> 
> http://www.cieletespaceradio.fr/index.php/2008/05/26/390-histoire-des-sciences-les-preuves-de-la-relativite
> "Au d�but du XX�me si�cle, des scientifiques comme le Britannique
> Arthur Eddington avaient tant � coeur de v�rifier la th�orie de la
> relativit� qu'ils ont tout mis en oeuvre pour que leurs exp�riences
> soient probantes." (ECOUTEZ!)
> 
> http://discovermagazine.com/2008/mar/20-things-you-didn.t-know-about-relativity
> "The eclipse experiment finally happened in 1919 (you�re looking at it
> on this very page). Eminent British physicist Arthur Eddington
> declared general relativity a success, catapulting Einstein into fame
> and onto coffee mugs. In retrospect, it seems that Eddington fudged
> the results, throwing out photos that showed the �wrong� outcome. No
> wonder nobody noticed: At the time of Einstein�s death in 1955,
> scientists still had almost no evidence of general relativity in
> action."
> 
> http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16321935.300-ode-to-albert.html
> New Scientist: Ode to Albert
> "Enter another piece of luck for Einstein. We now know that the light-
> bending effect was actually too small for Eddington to have discerned
> at that time. Had Eddington not been so receptive to Einstein's
> theory, he might not have reached such strong conclusions so soon, and
> the world would have had to wait for more accurate eclipse
> measurements to confirm general relativity."
> 
> The dogs bark but the caravan moves on:
> 
> http://www.physorg.com/news162820004.html
> May 29th, 2009
> "The total eclipse of 29th May 1919 gave scientists the chance to test
> the theory for the first time. Eddington travelled to Pr�ncipe to
> observe the eclipse and measure the apparent locations of stars near
> the Sun. Heavy clouds parted minutes before the eclipse and, with the
> Sun almost directly in front of them, the stars appeared to be shifted
> from the positions that Eddington had recorded in Oxford 4 months
> earlier - direct evidence that our nearest star shapes the space
> around it. Celebrations will include a series of public talks, the
> installation of an interpretative plaque in the location where
> Eddington made his observations and an exhibition illustrating the
> science of gravitational lensing from 1919 to the present. 'Without
> Eddington's clever experiment and the fortuitous timing of this total
> eclipse it might have taken ages before Einstein's theory of gravity,
> first proposed in 1915, was proven to be correct,' said Professor
> Pedro Ferreira of Oxford University's Department of Physics who is one
> of the event's lead speakers."
> 
> Pentcho Valev
> pvalev@yahoo.com