Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Importance of Choice of a Mechanical Model in Physics


In the world of physics, it is very difficult to make up an arbitrary theory and hope that it will work for everything. One physical factor is connected to hundreds of other physical events and eventually you will find out that your new theory has too many conflict with the well known physical phenomena that it is simply impossible to arbitrarily manufacture a theory of the nature and make it work. The true theory of the nature has to have the enormous sense of inevitability built into it. Then what makes the theory of dipole gravity inevitable and compelling? For one, it is at the core of general relativity that has been misinterpreted from the beginning.

For an example, when we set up a physical model of an object like a perfect sphere for the calculation of Newtonian gravity, there is no special reason for such a choice other than the ease of calculation of the field and the clarity of the concept that such a choice brings. One can equally have a cubical form of an object for the calculation of the Newtonian gravity. However, getting the accurate field around it in a closed mathematical format will be a nightmarish task and furthermore it serves no purpose in understanding how the force of gravity works in nature.

The serious mistake in the conventional treatment of the gravitational dipole moment in the weak field limit of general relativity was in the mindless choice of the spherical model object which completely obscures the dipole gravity effect. By the choice of the rotating spherical object, the effect of dipole gravity was already thrown out even before one has any chance to calculate it. This mistake can not be put under the rug and this is the main reason I urge Dr. Kip Thorne to revise his text book immediately. He can not continue misleading the innocent young minds especially when he knows of this mistake by many public announcement that I made so far. And I also know many of the readers of this blog have sent him email letters for explanation.

Because if one takes a look at the mechanics of the system more carefully, one can see that the special relativistic mass increase effect distorts the uniformity of the density of the rotating spherical object. So this simple observation should have already hinted the fact that the second order gravity effect of general relativity can not manifest clearly in the spherical model. But this question has never been materialized even though the Lense-Thirring effect provided the crucial hint for the need of such a consideration because it is the clear manifestation of the non-zero second order gravity effect at the center of the rotating spherical mass shell.

The importance of dipole gravity is not actually in its ability to explain the jets or the dark matter problems. It is in the urgency of the mathematical integrity and the physical inevitability that it carries with it. It shows how the equivalence principle brings out the second order effect of general relativity in the form of the magnet like dipole gravity.

Essentially, dipole gravity breaks all the rules of Newtonian mechanics and yet, you can not say it can't be correct because it is at the core of general relativity.

To denounce dipole gravity, you will have to find all the good reasons why general relativity can be wrong which you can't. This is where the compelling reason is outstanding for the experimental testing. But the textbooks on gravitation has to be revised based on the theoretical as well as on the mathematical integrity regardless of the testing, precisely the same way the quadrupole radiation is presented in the text books.

After all, there is no better teacher in science than experimentation.