Gravity Probe B: Final Results of a Space Experiment to Test General Relativity · HackerPapers discussions

Gravity Probe B: Final Results of a Space Experiment to Test General Relativity — mentioned by panda-giddiness

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 03:18:10 GMT

These effects are technically present but negligible for all practical purposes (well, unless you're building the next Gravity Probe B). The geodetic precession for a satellite in polar LEO is roughly 1 deg per 500 years [1]; the other types are orders of magnitude smaller. You've made a good point, however, that two of these types of precession are evidence that the Earth spins (whether you could convince a flat-Earther of Thomas precession is a separate matter). But let me offer a gentle correction: Thomas and Lense-Thirring precessions are caused by the rotation of the Earth, whereas the…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Gravity Probe B: Final Results of a Space Experiment to Test General Relativity — mentioned by humbledrone

Fri, 20 May 2011 23:13:35 GMT

This experiment did not set out to "prove" anything. I think you'll find that the original article does not use the word "prove" even once. The experiment set out to experimentally test the accuracy of Einstein's predictions. The results of the experiment showed that under these specific circumstances, the predictions line up extremely well with observations. There's no "control group" for this kind of test. Of course, they could potentially run multiple experiments to verify Einstein's predictions under different circumstances. That might provide useful information, but the lack of such…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.