Re: How to tell if a theory is a good one

From: Gregory L. Hansen (glhansen_at_steel.ucs.indiana.edu)
Date: 10/21/04 

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 14:07:13 +0000 (UTC)

In article <2tpq1oF23gjlfU2@uni-berlin.de>,
robert j. kolker <nowhere@nowhere.net> wrote:
>
>
>Bjoern Feuerbacher wrote:
>
>> GR suggests that matter is missing in galaxies. That something is called
>> dark matter. So from that stand point, GR predicts dark matter.
>
>Or dark matter (the hypothesis) saves GTR. No one has ever detected dark
>matter. They have interpreted the anomalous motion curves to indicate
>dark matter exists. A method of finding dark matter independent of
>gravitational effects is required.
>
>After all Netpune was -seen- after it was hypothesized as a hypothetical
>other planet.
>
>Bob Kolker
>

I remember reading in Physics Today about gravitational lensing caused by
dark matter. I was not surprised, I don't presume we have a complete
catalog of everything in the universe.

Not the 90% of mass missing from galaxies, just some mass we don't see.

Personally, I think dark matter and dark energy will be seen as gravity's
stellar aberration and Michelson-Morley experiment. I think gravity
theory will need a fixer-upper.

But a suspicion is not proof. It doesn't mean general relatity is not
good science, or that it hasn't been wonderfully successful in a rash of
other tests, or that future theorists won't need to know anything about
the theory and mathematical techniques of GR. And it certainly doesn't
mean that Ken Seto will like the next gravity theory any better than he
likes the one we have now. 

-- 
"What are the possibilities of small but movable machines?  They may or
may not be useful, but they surely would be fun to make."
    -- Richard P. Feynman, 1959
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