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New Satellite Experiment Helps Confirm Einstein's Equivalence Principle (presse.cnes.fr)
Part of Einstein's theory of general relativity posits that gravity equals inertial mass -- and for the first time in 10 years, there's new evidence that he's right. Slashdot reader orsayman reports:
Most stories around space today seem to revolve around SpaceX, but let's not forget that space is also a place for cool physics experiments. One such experiment currently running into low orbit is the MICROSCOPE satellite launched in 2016 to test the (weak) Equivalence Principle (also knows as the universality of free fall) a central hypothesis in General Relativity.
The first results confirm the principle with a precision ten times better than previous experiments. And it's just the beginning since they hope to increase the precision by another factor of 10. If the Equivalence Principle is still verified at this precision, this could constrain or invalidate some quantum gravity theories. For those of you who are more satellite-science oriented, the satellite also features an innovative "self destruct" mechanism (meant to limit orbit pollution) based on inflatable structures described in this paper.
"The science phase of the mission began in December 2016," reports France's space agency, "and has already collected data from 1,900 orbits, the equivalent of a free fall of 85 million kilometres or half the Earth-Sun distance."
The first results confirm the principle with a precision ten times better than previous experiments. And it's just the beginning since they hope to increase the precision by another factor of 10. If the Equivalence Principle is still verified at this precision, this could constrain or invalidate some quantum gravity theories. For those of you who are more satellite-science oriented, the satellite also features an innovative "self destruct" mechanism (meant to limit orbit pollution) based on inflatable structures described in this paper.
"The science phase of the mission began in December 2016," reports France's space agency, "and has already collected data from 1,900 orbits, the equivalent of a free fall of 85 million kilometres or half the Earth-Sun distance."
General Relativety states that the acceleration due to gravity on two bodies that start at same position and with same velocity will be the same regardless of composition. The sattelite has a reference accelerometer with an electrostatically suspended mass of one material, and a test accelerometer with two test masses of two other materials.
You are part of a mass hallucination created by propaganda in the media. You wonder how the German people were taken in by Nazi propaganda that millions of their fellow citizens were evil? You and millions of your fellow leftists are living proof of how easy it is.
I'm a sidenote which political Party in the US has divided people against each other in every possible way encouraging them to think of themselves as victims and encouraging their anger all for political power? Just look at your anger. It feels good to hate doesn't it? Those chemicals in your brain that hate and anger produce give you a high that becomes addictive doesn't it? That's the whole point of the leftist propaganda in the US and it's working very well on you and millions like you. It's why so many of you put on masks and beat up people you see as evil. It feels good to hurt people doesn't it? I just wonder if you'll ever have a moment where you wake up from your hate-induxed hallucination and realize you are the Nazi.