• NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    physics jesus

    Yes, he is still regarded as such. Nearly nobody is aware of how thoroughly his core statements in physics have been refuted since 1905.

    His math holds water.

  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    The dude contributed greatly to physics, optics and mathematics.

    He also tried to cure the plague with magic frog vomit.

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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    13 hours ago

    Yes. And mathematics. And a key figure in the scientific revolution. Probably also one of the most intelligent people ever.

      • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        I firmly believe Newton would have gotten to relativity before Einstien if he were born at the same time.

        But it wasn’t the end results and complex formulas of Einstein’s theory that showed the flaws and gaps in Newton’s mechanics.

        It was the basic questions and thought experiments in Einstein’s first script. About basic geometry, length and width. The flow of time, the speed of a signal. Concurrency.

        It should have been possible to think these thoughts at Newton’s time.

        • loaExMachina@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          No it shouldn’t? Without Mercury’s orbit having been noticed, there was no need yet to question Newton’s theory, they simply worked as far as anyone could see; so why complicate it? And without the Lorentz transformation, the math Einstein used wasn’t there. And without Fizeau’s experiment, the fact that the speed of light is the same in every frame wasn’t known, and that’s a huge part of the theory. And if he had intuited it somehow, the Maxwell’s equations were even there either. Special relativity is at it’s core a way reconcile Maxwell’s equations with the core tenants of Newton’s theory. There was no way special relativity could’ve been found even half a century earlier, let alone over two centuries…

          • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            Mercury’s orbit

            I wasn’t talking about Astronomy at all.

            Lorentz transformation

            That was needed only for the end results. Not in the introductory thoughts that I was talking about.

            Fizeau’s experiment, the fact that the speed of light is the same

            Good point here. That was in fact one of the starting points for Einstein.

            There was no way special relativity could’ve been found even half a century earlier

            Again you are looking at the end results only, when the theory was complete.

            Have you even read my comment?

            Have you even read Einstein?

      • marcos@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Much of the Special Relativity value was on Lorenz mechanics anyway.

        And General Relativity, the Photoelectric Effect explanation, and his explanation for the Brownian movement all needed a great deal of anti-establishment thinking… honestly, I have no idea how much Newton had of that.

        • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          General Relativity needed lots and lots of the math that has been developed after Newton, even shortly before Einstein (and also he himself has developed some of it).

      • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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        13 hours ago

        Possible. But then we’d need somebody else to develop calculus and write a Principia Mathematica and lay the groundworks for the age of enlightenment.

        • loaExMachina@sh.itjust.works
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          5 hours ago

          A lot of what Newton used in Principia was already more or less in the air, it was just a matter of someone picking up the pieces and seeing the big pictures. It couldn’t have been more than a few decades at most until someone found out if it hadn’t been Newton.

          • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de
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            30 minutes ago

            Heheh, valid objection. Guess Newton wasn’t the only smart person in history 😆 And drama has always been part of human history… But we still hear those names over 300 years later. Along with a lot of other names of people whose results are taught in university today. But yeah, that hypothetical situation (Newton’s achievements in mathematics being replaced by Leibnitz) would make a good Dr. Who episode.