Conversation started Jun 8, 2012 at 11:07.
David Wallace
David Wallace
Jun 8, 2012 11:07
If you can find counterexamples to things that are false, then you have an immediate gauge of what's true and what isn't. It's almost like having @Vitaly hovering permanently in the background.
4
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
@Gigili yes, but sometimes the request for confirmation is genuine, and sometimes it is sarcastic.
David Wallace
David Wallace
@skullpatrol What high school has courses on GR?
@MattЭллен Not sarcastic. Ironic, maybe, but not sarcastic.
Sarcastic implies a degree of nastiness.
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
ok, ironic, and potentially sarcastic
David Wallace
David Wallace
My God, why would anyone choose to speak this language?
2
Meysam رها در بند
Meysam رها در بند
@DavidWallace How could we know something is false before finding counterexamples to them?
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Jun 8, 2012 11:10
@DavidWallace The book "Relativity: The special and general theories" claims the subject can be understood with only a high school education :D
David Wallace
David Wallace
@Meysamرهادربند There are unicorns in Tasmania.
@skullpatrol I disagree completely.
Meysam رها در بند
Meysam رها در بند
There are unicorns in Tasmania, are there?
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
@DavidWallace You would have to argue that point with the author :-)
David Wallace
David Wallace
@Meysamرهادربند Can you find a counterexample to this assertion?
@skullpatrol GR requires hefty mathematics, beyond the grasp of all but a minuscule quantity of teenagers.
@skullpatrol and I have neither the time nor the energy to argue with every crackpot that I disagree with.
Meysam رها در بند
Meysam رها در بند
@DavidWallace Hmm, I don't think it's possible.
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Jun 8, 2012 11:14
@DavidWallace Are you saying the author is a "crackpot"?
David Wallace
David Wallace
@Meysamرهادربند and yet you know that the assertion is false, right?
@skullpatrol I would put him/her in the same bucket as the likes of Velikovsky.
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
Immanuel Velikovsky
Immanuel Velikovsky () (17 November 1979) was a Russian-born American independent scholar of Jewish origins, best known as the author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting the events of ancient history, in particular the US bestseller Worlds in Collision, published in 1950. Earlier, he played a role in the founding of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, and was a respected psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His books use comparative mythology and ancient literary sources (including the Bible) to argue that Earth has suffered catastrophic close-contacts with other plane...
David Wallace
David Wallace
Yes, him.
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
I'm not familiar with his work :(
Meysam رها در بند
Meysam رها در بند
@DavidWallace If I can't see or find any unicorns in Tasmania, it does not mean that there is no unicorn there. So I can never say it's a false assertion.
David Wallace
David Wallace
Jun 8, 2012 11:18
@skullpatrol The WP page to which you have linked describes his work in far more detail than I ever could.
@Meysamرهادربند I can, because I know a thing or two about unicorns. And a thing or two about Tasmania.
skullpatrol
skullpatrol
@DavidWallace Fair enough. BTW the author of the book "Relativity: The special and general theories" was Einstein :D
David Wallace
David Wallace
Then I can't possibly argue with him, as he died before I was born.
However, I'd like to know if he ever managed to FIND a high school student who was capable of learning GR; or whether he was just making unfounded claims.
Meysam رها در بند
Meysam رها در بند
@DavidWallace It's like the Russell's Teapot example. Can you say that there is no teapot orbiting the Sun? Can you?
David Wallace
David Wallace
I can.
Matt Эллен
Matt Эллен
I put one there, so I can say there is!
David Wallace
David Wallace
Jun 8, 2012 11:23
Because I know which planet teapots were invented on, and I know what would be involved in getting one to orbit the sun.
 
Conversation ended Jun 8, 2012 at 11:23.