Einstein was right
Published on Apr 15, 2007 at 12:46 am.
2 Comments.
Filed under physics.
Well, it looks like Einstein was right. The initial results of the Gravity Probe B mission have been released, and the geodetic precession predicted under Einstein’s general theory of relativity has been measured to better than 1% accuracy. The gyroscopes precessed just as predicted. This is the first non-electromagnetic test of general relativity, and it worked fine. The frame dragging experiment that the satellite was to measure is still being evaluated. The frame dragging data was buried by a tiny torque acting on the gyroscopes. However, this is a systematic error, and it is believed that it can be modeled and the effect of the torque removed from the data. Hopefully, what will be left will be the effect of frame dragging.
So, Einstein wins another one.
-Astroprof
CCPhysicist on April 19, 2007 at 3:07 pm: 1
End of the semester and all that, so I have not had time to follow up on this story. What has been missing from the reports I have seen is the answer to the key science question: What still-viable theories did this result falsify? I seem to remember that frame dragging would be fatal to one of the alternatives to GR, but I don’t know if the precession alone kills any of them.
Astroprof on April 19, 2007 at 4:01 pm: 2
Yeah, end of semester stuff is killing me. I think most people expected this result. A few theorists are always proposing alternatives, though. I am happy with GR, and I honestly don’t keep up with all of the alternatives.