Sign in / up

back to article Einstein almost tagged dark energy in the early 1920s

It’s of historical interest only, at this point, but an analysis of an exchange between Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger seems to show how close Einstein came to predicting the dark energy problem. In this paper, submitted to Arxiv and described at the Arxiv Blog here, Alex Harvey of City University, New York, examines a …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

      1. NomNomNom
        Reply Icon

        Re: Being really pedantic here

        "So you get big clumps of something that doesn't interact much except through gravity, and normal matter falls into the potential wells. That way we can actually get the kind of structure we see in the universe (very hard otherwise), get galaxies that spin as fast as we actually observe (they'd fly apart otherwise), and introduce a whole ream of other problems."

        sorry but that sounds largely bollocks. noone has ever seen an invisible lump of matter and they just defy common sense. The explanation offered by string theory is much better. we've all see puppet shows where where real thin string can be completely invisible from a distance. So it makes sense that the reason galaxies are held together is because of thin string like structures linking all the stars together. That's also why they are spinning because the strings have all become quantum entangled. I am no steven hawkings but I did do physics at A Level for half a year so this isn't just some uneducated rant.

        1 6

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

          1. NomNomNom
            Reply Icon

            Re: Being really pedantic here

            I didn't mean ACTUAL string obviously so those who downvoted my comments need to get a grip.

            If it was actual string all the stars would stay the same distance from each other as they are spinning so no the string must be very stretchy elastic kind. Where does the string come from?? probably it was created in the big bank and subsequently over billions of years has become caught in the stars themselves, much like how a shoelace in a box of earings will over time become snagged.

            The string may be black in color which is why we can't see it on the backdrop of space, or possibly transparent.

            0 0

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

            2. Count Ludwig
              Reply Icon
              Coffee/keyboard

              Re: Being really pedantic here

              Priceless!

              And the fortuitous typo: "big bank" was icing on the cake. (It was a typo wasn't it?)

              Of course you might be a troll, wrapped like a mummy in irony - I mean citing "half a year A level physics" as argumentum ad verecundiam to a professional comologist was worthy of Henry Root - in which case I still thank you, multifold.

              Either way you owe me a new kb!

              2 0
        2. Vic
          Reply Icon

          Re: Being really pedantic here

          > I did do physics at A Level for half a year so this isn't just some uneducated rant.

          Non sequitur?

          Vic.

          0 0
    2. An(other) Droid
      Reply Icon

      Re: I've been wondering about this dark matter stuff

      > so much of 'stuff' is symmetric in the universe - electrons - protons, upspin - downspin, wave-particle duality all the mesons, baryons, bosons and other stuff that all have counterpart particles...

      You mean like Yin and Yang, good and evil, life and death, Dumb and Dumber...

      0 0
  2. Grom_uk
    Holmes

    The fault is in the theory not in the search

    The need for dark energy is due to a flaw in the thinking of the shape of the universe.

    We know mass puts a dint in "space time" but what we ignore is that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

    Between the lumps of mass space time is bulging up, causing the effects we atribute to dark energy.

    If you drop a ball in water the amount of water it displaces has to move away.

    Same with "space time" except it moves away at the speed of light.

    What is at the edge of the universe......I tidal wave of disturbed space time spreading outwards.

    oh and the big bang was something 4th dimentional "twanging" space time, and as it jumped back the energy released formed matter etc.. etc.. you can work it out from there.

    0 0

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Tom 13
        Reply Icon

        @HolyFreakinGhost

        Granted I dropped out of astro because I couldn't deal with diff eqs and vector calculus, but here's the part I don't get on a conceptual level with regard to the dark matter issue:

        Essentially Einstein proposed a multi-dimensional framework inside of which our 4 dimensional exits. Our observations occur within that 4 dimensional framework. So if the missing mass/dark matter is simply another 4 dimensional framework sitting next to us in the multi-dimensional framework, why would we be able to measure something in the 4 dimensional framework? Yes we'd be able to detect affects it is having on our system, but we wouldn't be able to measure it directly. So it really is a sort of new ether in the sense that while we know it's there, we can't really experiment with it, measure it, or understand it. In fact, we're just like the ancient cavemen with one major difference: their block was ignorance that could be corrected, the block we face is an actual physical disconnect. So I see this as a variation on the immovable object vs irresistable force paradox: it's only a paradox because if you assume the one the other doesn't exist.

        0 0

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Crisp
      Reply Icon

      Re: The fault is in the theory not in the search

      Ok, now break out the maths.

      0 0

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. The March Hare
          Reply Icon

          Re: The fault is in the theory not in the search

          Aaargg! my brains is leaked outa my head..

          getting in the box with the cat - or not...

          1 0
        2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: The fault is in the theory not in the search

          Thanks for taking the time to write these very substantial and interesting posts. I had to look up a couple of terms (I have a passing familiarity with differential geometry but only a glancing acquaintance with cosmology, so for example the abbreviation FLRW wasn't one I recognized - but Wikipedia took care of that), but on the whole I found it about as easy to follow as one could hope from a few paragraphs in a comments section.

          0 0
  3. tojb
    Headmaster

    no probs with magnets as far as I know

    ...magnetism is a correction to the electrostatic force, caused by relative motion of the charges. Because charges are moving, there is a Lorentz contraction and the local charge density appears to change, relative to stationary charges. Thus, a force. That explanation always seemed rather neat and final to me, pelase speak up if you have a problem with it.

    0 0
  4. Gordon 10
    Boffin

    On constants

    Also bear in mind some physical "constants" are only such under a set of defined conditions......Change those enough of those conditions.

    Its convient to assume the speed of light is a constant (its not) and that its synonymous with "C". However whilst C is a fairly universal constant its only a top bound for the speed of light.

    0 0
    1. Crisp
      Reply Icon

      Re: On constants

      When is c not constant?

      0 0
      1. El Andy
        Reply Icon

        Re: On constants

        c is the speed of light in a vacuum and is always constant. However the speed light travels can vary depending on the medium it is passing through, which is the subtly a lot of people miss, it's not always c (though it is never greater).

        0 0
  5. ukgnome
    Coat

    Erwin Schrödinger died 3 October 1965), and was buried in Alpbach, Austria.

    Question is - what's in the coffin?

    *the one that may or may not have a magazine about cat lovers in the pocket.

    0 0
  6. Quentin North

    Dark energy

    There is some real dark energy in that tag, dude!

    Tags: Erwin SchröDinger

    0 0
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > but that the expansion seems to be accelerating (which demands a source for the energy driving the acceleration, vindicating Einstein’s original demand for just such a constant).

    I guess it could be a constant if it was a function of the size of the universe....

    0 0
  8. jke
    Paris Hilton

    You're all wrong

    It is all due to intergalactic slood. Nearly as easy to discover as fire and much more useful. Ask paris she knows all about it and so does Terry Pratchett.

    0 0
  9. Marshalltown
    Pint

    Hubble

    Hubble called for revisiting the entire issue of "universal expansion" in 1948. He didn't like the idea and was dubious about the actual accuracy of the means used to estimate intergalactic distances. If the candles aren't quite as standard as one might wish, error creeps in. That in turn brought the correlation between red shift and any putative cosmic expansion into question. By then Gamow had grabbed to loaf and stuffed it with raisins making a homely metaphor that even English majors could feel they understood.

    0 0

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.