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A pi test of Einstein’s theory of general relativity

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A photograph of the Greek letter pi, created as a large stone mosaic embedded in the ground.
pi in mosaic, Berlin/Holger Motzkau

The theory passed another recent test, which led to a science writer’s reflections on the strangeness of pi, the irrational number that pops up everywhere:

Pi seems to pop up all the time—not just explicitly in circles but in the hydrogen atom and the way needles fall across lines. The reason a factor of pi appears in an equation for gravitational waves is a little headier, however: the waves interact with themselves.

“When a gravitational wave is traveling out, it sees the curvature of spacetime, including the energy that was generated by the gravitational waves produced in the past,” Berti says. The first stone you drop into a calm pond sends out smooth ripples across the surface. If you drop another stone immediately after, the surface is no longer smooth—leftover ripples from the previous stone will interfere with new ripples from the second one. Gravitational waves work similarly, but the medium is spacetime itself, not water.

Daniel Garisto, “Pi in the Sky: General Relativity Passes the Ratio’s Test” at Scientific American

More unexpected places pi appears.

Comments
FourFaces: We, Christians, believe in the resurrection. Both you and Einstein will be resurrected and shown the error of your ways. You’ll be given your chance to repent. God is fair and does play with dice after all, regardless of what some puny human may believe in. I shall await divine decision.JVL
May 22, 2020
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We, Christians, believe in the resurrection. Both you and Einstein will be resurrected and shown the error of your ways. You'll be given your chance to repent. God is fair and does play with dice after all, regardless of what some puny human may believe in.FourFaces
May 22, 2020
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FourFaces: Funny but I don’t care what you read in your Satanic journals. ???? I’ll just wait until Elijah comes and restores all things. Okay. He sure is taking his time though. What happens if you die before that?JVL
May 22, 2020
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Funny but I don't care what you read in your Satanic journals. :-D I'll just wait until Elijah comes and restores all things.FourFaces
May 22, 2020
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FourFaces: Funny I haven't read any of your ideas in any journal.JVL
May 22, 2020
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JVL: I’m sure there’s a website for that. Einstein: Unless it was predicted and predetermined by my theory, it doesn't and cannot exist. Past, present and future are the same thing. Ich habe gesprochen.FourFaces
May 22, 2020
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FourFaces: I'm sure there's a website for that.JVL
May 22, 2020
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Einstein: My theory makes time travel, wormholes and gravitational waves possible. Jesus: Oh, you mean you invented Star Trek physics? Einstein: Yes. My theory also predicted dark matter, dark energy and infinite dark determinism which destroys the free will of all humans. God doesn't like to play dice with the universe, you know. Jesus: I know. All that dark Satanic stuff. But Elijah cometh and restoreth all things. LOL.FourFaces
May 22, 2020
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FourFaces: I has become clear to me in recent years that Einsteinian physics is a Satanic doctrine promoted by the physics school of Satan. LOL. Oooooookay.JVL
May 22, 2020
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I has become clear to me in recent years that Einsteinian physics is a Satanic doctrine promoted by the physics school of Satan. LOL.FourFaces
May 22, 2020
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Ed George: Like a less vulgar version of Mapou, or Louis Savain. All that’s missing is a “ ahahahaha…AHAHAHAHA…ahahahaha”. ???? Yes, that is who I was thinking of! I wouldn't be surprised if he got bored and decided to return to the fray.JVL
May 21, 2020
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FourFaces: I disagree with every one of your points but I’m convinced that this exchange is useless. Take care and see you around. If I behaved that way with Bornagain77 or Upright Biped or Kairosfocus or ET I'd be accused of being a coward without the evidence to back up my position.JVL
May 21, 2020
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😂daveS
May 21, 2020
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JVL
You remind me of someone else who used to post at UD years ago . . .
Like a less vulgar version of Mapou, or Louis Savain. All that’s missing is a “ ahahahaha...AHAHAHAHA...ahahahaha”. :)Ed George
May 21, 2020
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DiEb @ 12, LOL. It's even funnier than that. What's really strange is that spacetime forbids time travel. Heck, it forbids every kind of travel or change. It was only because Einstein and other famous but equally self-deluded relativists wrongly taught multiple generations that bodies travel along their geodesics in spacetime that time travel became accepted as a possibility in physics. It's insane.FourFaces
May 21, 2020
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"Einstein’s pseudoscientific ideas gave rise to superstitions like time travel and wormholes, and to fraudulent science like gravitational waves." H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine" was published in 1895, Einstein's general theory in 1915. Is this the proof that time travel exists?DiEb
May 21, 2020
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JVL, I disagree with every one of your points but I'm convinced that this exchange is useless. Take care and see you around.FourFaces
May 21, 2020
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FourFaces: Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to engage in a lengthy exchange. The superiority of Newton over Einstein is that Newton understood that math explains nothing . . . But he invented Calculus for some reason; at least to justifies his hypothesised mathematical models of physical behaviour. Einstein, on the other hand, arrogantly claimed to have figured out the cause of gravity. I think he just came up with a more sophisticated model that could be applied to more cases. None other than Karl Popper used it to dismiss Einstein’s world view. He compared Einstein’s spacetime to Parmenides’ and Zeno’s myth of a changeless universe. Karl Popper emphasised empirical evidence and Einstein's ideas have been empirically established several times over. Time does not change by definition. The measurement of time varies depending on your inertial frame of reference. Clocks can slow down or speed up for reasons having to do with energy conservation but claiming that time can dilate is illogical. And yet it has been established beyond any physical consideration or influence. Gravitational lensing works on the same principle. Explain that then in detail. Or point to an explanation. Einstein’s pseudoscientific ideas gave rise to superstitions like time travel and wormholes, and to fraudulent science like gravitational waves. Time travel and wormholes are purely speculative. But gravitational waves were predicted and have been detected as predicted. If I asked you what was detected by LIGO if it wasn't gravitational waves you'll have some guess but no evidence. You rail against well established science with nothing to back you up except that you don't understand how it works.JVL
May 21, 2020
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JVL, Unfortunately, I don't have the time to engage in a lengthy exchange. The superiority of Newton over Einstein is that Newton understood that math explains nothing and when asked what caused gravity, he replied: "Hypotheses non fingo", i.e., "I feign no hypotheses." Einstein, on the other hand, arrogantly claimed to have figured out the cause of gravity. Note that my argument regarding the block universe nature of spacetime is not mine. It's been known for almost a century. None other than Karl Popper used it to dismiss Einstein's world view. He compared Einstein's spacetime to Parmenides' and Zeno's myth of a changeless universe. Einstein had no true understanding of anything, in my opinion. He just extrapolated from the experiments of Michelson and Morley which he did not understand. Time does not change by definition. Bodies move, variables change but time is unchanging. Einstein's concept of time is nonsense. Clocks can slow down or speed up for reasons having to do with energy conservation but claiming that time can dilate is illogical. Gravitational lensing works on the same principle. Einstein's pseudoscientific ideas gave rise to superstitions like time travel and wormholes, and to fraudulent science like gravitational waves. But I'll leave it at that.FourFaces
May 21, 2020
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FourFaces: Spacetime cannot be disturbed. It’s frozen solid from the infinite past to the infinite future. You remind me of someone else who used to post at UD years ago . . . How do you explain gravitational lensing then? Or, as can be easily verified, that moving clocks run slower. (Synchronise two clocks at New York City; send one to the North Pole, one to the equation, bring them back together, they won'd have the same time anymore.) What's your view on Quantum Mechanics? Questioning scientific consensus is one thing, denying hard data is something else altogether.JVL
May 21, 2020
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Jawa @6 a disturbance in space-time Therein lies the crackpottery. Spacetime cannot be disturbed. It's frozen solid from the infinite past to the infinite future. This is what is meant by a block universe. It's not even wrong. The incongruity of it all has been known for decades but the crackpottery persists by sheer force of propaganda. I call it globalist science.FourFaces
May 21, 2020
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Definition of gravitational wave : a disturbance in space-time in the form of a wave that propagates the gravitational field Gravitational waves are a natural offshoot of the rubber-sheet construction of general relativity. Just as a massive object sitting on the fabric of spacetime creates a dimple, so moving or changing objects, under certain conditions, create wrinkles in the fabric. Those wrinkles, tiny distortions in spacetime, zoom away at the speed of light. Because these gravitational waves carry energy, anything emitting them will lose a tiny bit of its speed. — Science https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravitational%20wave “The theory predicted the existence of gravitational waves and black holes — both of which have now been confirmed by observation.” — Quanta Magazine, "Arrows of Time," 5 May 2020 “And that result would be good news for the European Space Agency's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, set to launch sometime in the 2030s to hunt for gravitational waves emitted by supermassive black holes.” — Nola Taylor Redd, Scientific American, "Meet “Spikey,” a Possible Pair of Merging Supermassive Black Holes," 10 Feb. 2020 https://youtu.be/EmrZ3ZaXmS4jawa
May 20, 2020
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They can’t deny this since a quick search of Google proves it. Nothing more needs to be said I'd say.JVL
May 20, 2020
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Seversky @3 LOL. Unless you know where it is, Einstein's physics doesn't provide a projector for spacetime frames. He and his supporters have always maintained that gravity is caused by the curvature of spacetime and that bodies move along their geodesics in spacetime even though any sane person knows that spacetime is fiction. They can't deny this since a quick search of Google proves it. Imagine moving in a frozen, motionless, fictitious structure. Worse, spacetime enforces a purely deterministic universe, which is crackpottery. Einstein's physics is not even physics. It's a silly fairy tale, a farce. Gravitational waves and time travel are just the tip of the iceberg of BS that came out of it. Soon, it will be dethroned and scrapped. Wait for it.FourFaces
May 20, 2020
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FourFaces 1
Spacetime is a frozen block universe and nothing can move in it. It doesn’t exist.
Look at an old movie film reel and all you see is a sequence of static frames. Nothing moves - until you run it through a projector at 24fps or more and you have a fully moving image in gorgeous color, immersive sound and even 3D. Soon it'll be full VR. All from still frames.Seversky
May 20, 2020
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@FourFaces Really? So what are the implications for the flatness of the Earth?Pater Kimbridge
May 20, 2020
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Spacetime is a frozen block universe and nothing can move in it. It doesn't exist. So how can anything "see" the curvature of spacetime? Einstein's general relativity assumes that gravity travels at the speed of light. If that were true, the gravitational field would be elongated in the direction of a planet's motion. This is not observed. Newtonian gravity would not work at all if that were true. General relativity is complete bunk, pure fraudulent globalist science in the tradition of Darwinian evolution and abiogenesis. The LIGO project's supposed detection of so-called gravitational waves is one of the biggest scientific scams in history, to the tune of billions of dollars of the taxpayer's money. We live in a world of lies but nothing lasts forever.FourFaces
May 20, 2020
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