CC-Resurgam
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November 29, 2016, 07:42:15 PM |
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The claim "gravity is technically just a theory" ranges from completely wrong to completely obvious depending on what you mean by the words "gravity" and "theory". That's because those words (like most words) have multiple meanings, and those meanings can be particularly different in everyday speech compared to technical jargon.
First of all, like many others have said, gravity is a phenomenon, not a theory. There are several different theories describing this phenomenon. That the phenomenon itself exists is hard to doubt, except of course if you're willing to believe that it's all just a dream or we're living in a simulation.
Secondly, "theory" has several different meanings. In common speech, a "theory" is little more than a hunch. It's just some explanation you came up with by thinking about it for 5 minutes. That's very different from what the word "theory" tends to mean when used by scientists.
Scientists typically only call something a "theory" if it is a precise framework for understanding a large number of facts, and this usually only after that framework has been thoroughly tested. So saying "just a theory" is effectively an oxymoron: in science, a theory is pretty much the highest point for an idea to reach.
Interestingly, in particle physics at least, the term "theory" has acquired a third meaning, as a very precise mathematical description of a system that may or may not exist in reality. So people, for example, talk about N=4N=4 super-symmetric YangMills theory, although there is no experimental verification that super-symmetry or con-formal symmetry even exist, let alone be described in that particular way. This isn't because physicists are crazy or stupid; it's because they use the term with a different meaning, and this meaning is clear from context.
So, just like when you talk about a pride of lions or a murder of crows you don't confuse them with a person's pride or his violent demise, make sure to not confuse one meaning of the word "theory" with another!
Now, I said that the statement "gravity is technically just a theory" can range from wrong to trivial depending on what you mean by the words. How is that? First of all, if by gravity you mean the phenomenon, then it's isn't a theory at all. If you instead mean a specific theory, like Newton's theory of gravity, or Einstein's theory of general relativity, then it depends on what you mean by "theory". If you're referring to the layman's notion of a "theory", then the statement is absolutely false: there are huge numbers of experiments showing that each of those theories is good within its range of applicability. They both are most definitely much more than "just a theory". (If you're confused about the claim that both theories are good, see Isaac Asimov's The Relativity of Wrong).
If instead you mean "theory" in the scientific sense, then of course any model of gravity is "just" a theory: since such a model makes claims about how gravity worked, works, and will work everywhere in the universe and for all of time, it's obvious that we can never fully test it. For all we know, gravity might work differently starting tomorrow. So in this sense, the claim is trivial.
So when you say it has not been "Proven" then that is wrong. because gravity is as true as humanity, as time, as mass. just because there may be different takes that are educated guesses, doesnt mean it is not a force. the law of gravity is just that a physical LAW. besides even if it was "Just a theory" it is still a hell of a lot more then anyone else has including all of flat earth claims.
So finally i ask show me how to disprove gravity.
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