sci.physics.particle

Koobee Wublee wrote on Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:32:43 -0800:

> On Mar 4, 6:03 pm, carlip-nos...@physics.ucdavis.edu wrote:

> However, I need no graceful retreat from the comment on the absurdity of
> the geodesics following the path with the least accumulated spacetime.
> When Christoffel derived the geodesic equations, there was nothing wrong
> with his assumption that the shortest distance between two points in
> 3-dimensional space is the actual distance through each local point even
> if that space is curved. It is not necessarily a straight line as an
> observer observes it using his choice of coordinate system. However,
> when the Goettingen group of mathematicians including Hilbert, Klein,
> Schwarzschild, and Minkowski worked on this problem, they simply
> extended to the 4-dimensional spacetime. In doing so, no one really
> thought out except 100 years later by yours truly that this model does
> not allow photons to propagate with a coherent path. Are you still
> standing by your conjecture that this model of geodesic is a valid one?

There four main complaints about geodesic models:

i)
It have been not empirically verified, really. Same 'tests' of GR are
verified by non-geometrical theories where gravity is a force

In those 'tests', the beatiful artistic works

http://bp2.blogger.com/_I-n4UWp0ZqM/RsmMDkc5CjI/AAAAAAAAAEU/EdXg-C5_-Fo/
s1600-h/curvedspacetime.gif

are empirically indistinguisable from alternative models

http://bp3.blogger.com/_I-n4UWp0ZqM/RsmMD0c5CkI/AAAAAAAAAEc/joqIPrW5O-k/
s1600-h/flatspacetime.gif

ii)
Geodesic model is limited in several ways: e.g. geodesic motion has not
correct Newtonian limit (GR literature no Newtonian limits is completely
incorrect at this point); no complete N-body solution is geodesic, no
quantization...

iii)
Geodesic motion introduces further difficulties: conservation, unphysical
boundaries, systems of reference...

iv)
It breaks unification with rest of forces.


--
I apply http://canonicalscience.org/en/miscellaneouszone/guidelines.txt