{"id":50915,"date":"2016-01-09T16:54:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-09T23:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=50915"},"modified":"2016-01-09T16:54:49","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T23:54:49","slug":"einsteins-theory-of-gravity-and-how-ehi-passiko-has-become-deva-passiko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/01\/09\/einsteins-theory-of-gravity-and-how-ehi-passiko-has-become-deva-passiko\/","title":{"rendered":"Einstein\u2019s theory of gravity, and how Ehi-passiko has become Deva-passiko!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Einstein published his new theory of gravitation in 1915. Its centenary has produced many popular articles explaining this seminal theory that plays a vital role even in everyday life. When\u00a0 you use a GPS to locate where you are,\u00a0 it uses four satellite signals to solve Einstein’s field equations whose solutions gives\u00a0 you your current location (longitude, latitude and height above sea level,\u00a0 these form three dimensions) and your current time (this is called the fourth dimension in Einstein’s theory).<\/p>\n

However, popular science writers like to shock the readers and catch their attention. A common shock-statement\u00a0 is that “there is no gravitational attraction according to Einstein”. We find this stated\u00a0 even by university professors who avoid\u00a0 such incorrect\u00a0 statements.<\/p>\n

The ordinary person correctly asks, “then why do apples or coconuts fall”? It is easy to show\u00a0 that they fall with increasing speed, i.e., with an acceleration.\u00a0 According to Newton, if there is an acceleration, a force must exist! This law of Newton has not been overthrown by anyone including Einstein.\u00a0 So\u00a0 the force of gravity\u00a0 exists!\u00a0 Also we can feel it by successively trying to lift\u00a0 masses of 5 kilos, 10 kilos or 100 kilos.\u00a0 The heavier the mass, the larger is the force needed to lift it up. Bigger masses\u00a0 need larger forces to accelerate the mass by the same amount. This too can be easily seen by allowing the different masses to\u00a0 slide down a smooth inclined plank and measuring the time taken by the masses to slide different distances. So, we all can feel the forces and see the acceleration.
\nHere we are\u00a0 following\u00a0 the Ehipassiko\u201d principle of come and see,\u00a0 and confirm for yourself\u201d.<\/p>\n

In science, we do not immediately believe what we see. We convert what we\u00a0 want to see into pointer readings of clocks\u00a0 or marks on measuring sticks. These can be checked not just by one person, but any one, even if he were blind, by feeling the position of the pointer or\u00a0 the markers. We use sensitive instruments, so that science can confirm the existence of things that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
\nScience deals with digitized data about this external world\u201d provided by these instruments. The data are\u00a0 common to every one, and not personal\u201d\u00a0 to any Silva or Senanayaka.<\/p>\n

Ehipassiko replaced by Devapassiko.<\/strong>
\nIn Sri Lanka, readers are familiar with\u00a0 Dr. Nalin de Silva’s claim that\u00a0\u00a0 “Western Science” is a “rotten lie” (patta-pal boru). However, when it\u00a0 suites him he embraces Einstein’s relativity and\u00a0 criticizes Sri Lankan\u00a0 academics for “thinking that there is a gravitational attraction, even a century after Einstein showed that gravity is a fiction” (e.g, see Vidusara 18-11-2015, and many other articles). Writing in the Lankaweb (25th Dec. 2015)\u00a0 he says that \u0d91\u0dba \u0db1\u0dd2\u0dc0\u0dd4\u0da7\u0db1\u0dca \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dc3\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca \u0dc3\u0d82\u0dc3\u0dca\u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dab\u0dba \u0d9a\u0dd9\u0dbb\u0dd3 \u0daf\u0dd0\u0db1\u0dca \u0db6\u0da7\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0dbd\u0ddd\u0d9a\u0dba \u0db4\u0db8\u0dab\u0d9a\u0dca \u0db1\u0ddc\u0dc0 \u0dc3\u0dd2\u0d82\u0dc4\u0dbd \u0db6\u0dde\u0daf\u0dca\u0db0\u0dba\u0db1\u0dca \u0daf \u0d8a\u0db1\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dcf \u0dba\u0dae\u0dcf\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dae\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca \u0dbd\u0dd9\u0dc3 \u0daf\u0d9a\u0dd2\u0db1 \u0db4\u0da7\u0dca\u0da7\u0db4\u0dbd\u0dca \u0db6\u0ddc\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0d9a\u0dd2.\u201d That is, in English,\u00a0\u00a0 the force of gravity\u00a0 is\u00a0 a rotten lie fabricated by Newton and now considered to be a reality not only by the Western World, but also by the Sinhala Buddhist\u201d.\u00a0 Since science is a rotten lie, how does Dr. Silva\u00a0 find the truth? Dr. Silva, writing on\u00a0 28-12-2015 Lankaweb says ” \u0d85\u0db4\u0dd2 \u0db4\u0dda\u0db1 \u0d85\u0dc3\u0db8\u0dd4. \u0d9a\u0dda\u0db1\u0dca\u0daf\u0dbb \u0db6\u0dbd\u0db8\u0dd4.\u00a0 \u0db4\u0d82\u0da0\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd2\u0dba \u0d9c\u0ddd\u0da0\u0dbb \u0db1\u0ddc\u0dc0\u0db1 \u0da2\u0dd3\u0dc0\u0dd3\u0db1\u0dca \u0dc4\u0dcf \u0dc0\u0dc3\u0dca\u0dad\u0dd4 \u0d9c\u0dd0\u0db1 \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dc1\u0dca\u0dc0\u0dcf\u0dc3 \u0d9a\u0dbb\u0db8\u0dd4. \u0d85\u0db4\u0da7 \u0d85\u0db4\u0dda \u0db8\u0d9c \u0dba\u0dd1\u0db8\u0da7 \u0dbd\u0da2\u0dca\u0da2\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0d9a\u0dca \u0db1\u0dd0\u0dad. \u0dbd\u0da2\u0dca\u0da2\u0dcf \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dba \u0dba\u0dd4\u0dad\u0dca\u0dad\u0dda \u0db6\u0da7\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0daf\u0dd0\u0db1\u0dd4\u0db8\u0dda \u0daf\u0dcf\u0dc3\u0dba\u0db1\u0dca \u0dc0\u0dd3\u0db8\u0da7 \u0dba. This states that We listen to psychics and soothsayers, we accept horoscopes, we believe in organisms and objects not observed by our senses. We are not ashamed of our path. What we should be ashamed of is being slaves of western knowledge\u201d. His acceptance of psychics and revealed\u00a0\u00a0 knowledge\u00a0 is typified by Dr. Silva’s uncritical acceptance of the words\u00a0 of\u00a0 a woman who claims to hear voices (allegedly the voice of God Natha). People hear voices\u201d when they have the mental illness known as Schizophrenia or similar mental disorders.\u00a0 This\u00a0 psychic,\u00a0 known has Ms. Senanayaka,\u00a0 claims that God Natha told her\u00a0 that the Rajarata farmer, stricken by a chronic kidney disease of unknown origins (CKDU) is caused by Arsenic! Later, though no scientists or medic, she authored an article that appeared in a pretend science journal\u201d claiming that glyphosate (a common weedkiller) and the hardness of water combine to cause CKDU.\u00a0 But the medical and chemical scientists who have tested the soil and the water in Rajarata are unanimous that there is no significant amounts of arsenic or glyphosate in the Rajarata environment! However,\u00a0 Dr. Silva writes (12-05-15) :\u00a0 “\u0d85\u0daf \u0db8\u0dda \u0db6\u0da7\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dba\u0dcf\u0da5\u0dba\u0db1\u0dca \u0dba\u0dd0\u0dba\u0dd2 \u0d9a\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dcf\u0d9c\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0dcf \u0d85\u0dba \u0d85\u0db4\u0da7 \u0dc4\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dcf\u0dc0\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0dda \u0d85\u0db4 \u0db4\u0d82\u0da0\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd2\u0dba \u0d9c\u0ddd\u0da0\u0dbb \u0db1\u0ddc\u0dc0\u0db1 \u0db1\u0dcf\u0dae \u0daf\u0dd9\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dba\u0db1\u0dca \u0db1\u0db8\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca \u0dc4\u0dd0\u0db3\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca\u0dc0\u0dd9\u0db1 \u0db4\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dcf\u0dab\u0dd2\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dd4\u0d9c\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca \u0d86\u0dc3\u0db1\u0dd2\u0d9a\u0dca \u0d9c\u0dca\u0dbd\u0dba\u0dd2\u0dc6\u0ddc\u0dc3\u0dda\u0da7\u0dca \u0d86\u0daf\u0dd2\u0dba \u0d9c\u0dd0\u0db1 \u0daf\u0dd0\u0db1\u0d9c\u0dad\u0dca\u0dad\u0dda \u0dba\u0dd0\u0dba\u0dd2 \u0d9a\u0dd2\u0dba\u0db8\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dd2.\u00a0 Today those who call themselves western scientists\u00a0 laugh at us saying that we we learnt of arsenic and glyphosate from an organism\u00a0\u00a0 known as God Natha who is not observable by the five senses\u201d.\u00a0 First of all only Dr. Sillva talks of a a gropup called\u00a0 western scientists\u201d; we have yet to come across people who define themselves as eastern scientists, southern scientists or northern scientists etc. Scientists in any part of the world\u00a0 have no problem of accepting objects or creatures that cannot\u00a0 be observed by the senses as long as their existence can be inferred via data gathered as pointer readings of various events. In fact, ssuch observations using instruments have revelaed invisible microscopic creatures as well as subatomic objects.. Furthermore, no one is laughing at\u00a0 Dr. Silva et al, but most people are aghast at them\u00a0 who are trying to do irreparable harm to the food supply of the masses because they have rejected the scientific method of the Ehipassiko\u201d doctrine and accepted the doctrine of Devapassiko\u201d, i.e.,\u00a0 let the psychic tell us the word of God Natha, and we follow her blindly\u201d.<\/p>\n

Observing gravity via our senses.<\/strong>
\nDr. Silva continues to write in the same article as follows:
\n” \u0d9a\u0dcf\u0dbd\u0ddd \u0dc4\u0ddd \u0dc0\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dad\u0dca \u0d9a\u0dc0\u0dbb\u0d9a\u0dd4 \u0dc4\u0ddd \u0d9c\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0dad\u0dca\u0dc0\u0dcf\u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dc2\u0dab\u0dba \u0db4\u0d82\u0da0\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dc0\u0dbd\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca \u0d9c\u0ddd\u0da0\u0dbb \u0d9a\u0dbb\u0d9c\u0dd9\u0db1 \u0dad\u0dd2\u0db6\u0dda \u0daf?, i.e., has Carlo Fonseka or anyone else observed the gravitational attraction with any of the five senses\u201d? On 25-12-2015 he says \u0d85\u0db8\u0dbb\u0dad\u0dd4\u0d82\u0d9c \u0db8\u0dc4\u0dad\u0dcf \u0d9a\u0dbd\u0d9a\u0da7 \u0db4\u0dd9\u0dbb \u0d9c\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0dad\u0dca\u0da0\u0dcf\u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dc2\u0dab\u0dba \u0dad\u0dd2\u0db6\u0dd9\u0db1 \u0db6\u0dc0 \u0d9a\u0dd3\u0dc0\u0dda \u0dba. \u0d91\u0dc4\u0dd9\u0dad\u0dca \u0d94\u0dc4\u0dd4 \u0d9c\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0dad\u0dca\u0dc0\u0dcf\u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dca\u0dc2\u0dab\u0dba \u0d9c\u0ddd\u0da0\u0dbb \u0dc0\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0dda \u0d9a\u0dd2\u0db1\u0db8\u0dca \u0d89\u0db1\u0dca\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd2\u0dba\u0d9a\u0da7 \u0daf\u0dd0\u0dba\u0dd2 \u0dad\u0dc0\u0db8\u0dad\u0dca \u0d9a\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dcf \u0db1\u0dd0\u0dad\u201d; i.e., Sometime ago Dr. Amaratunga said that there is a gravitational attraction. But he has not stated yet which sense organ observes the gravitational attraction\u201d. Clearly, Dr. Silva has no difficulty in believing the unseen God Natha and accepting hearsay word attributed to Nath. But he seems to have difficulty in accepting gravity because he has not seen or felt it? These statements clearly imply that Dr. Silva wants to feel gravity himself. We suggest that he carry a 20 pound stone on his back for a week, and at that point he should consult Dr. Amaratunga or Dr. Fonseka if he hadn’t felt gravity.<\/p>\n

Another problem he has with gravity is what he calls vyuktha gurthvaya\u201d which presumably means abstract gravity\u201d. When he gets into a corner discussing gravity he has no scruples in quickly hiding himself by claiming that we have to demonstrate vyuktha guruthvaya\u201d and not the gravity that we all feel. Last March (2015) Prof. Dharmawardana pointed out that\u00a0 Dr. Silva’s line of thinking is similar to that of Dr. Basil Mendis, a Peradeniya philosophy lecturer who claimed that the earth is actually flat, while the belief that the earth is a globe is an abstract piece of thinking which he regards as nonsense. Indeed Dr. Nalin de Silva’s thinking is in the same class of manasgaatha\u201d (memtal aberrations) as that of the flat earthist Mendis.<\/p>\n

Dr. Nalin de Silva, in a recent article entitled “Modernism, Western Science and Sinhala Medicine”
\n( Lanka Web, 15-12-2015) stated that one needs at least 25 years of training in modern physics to comprehend\u00a0 western science, i.e., ( \u0db6\u0da7\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0db7\u0dde\u0dad\u0dd2\u0d9a \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dca\u200d\u0dba\u0dcf\u0dc0)\u2026. \u0dc3\u0db3\u0dc4\u0dcf \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dc1\u0dda\u0dc2 \u0db4\u0dd4\u0dc4\u0dd4\u0dab\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0d9a\u0dca \u0d85\u0dc0\u0dc1\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0dc0\u0dd9\u0dba\u0dd2. .. \u0d92 \u0dc3\u0db3\u0dc4\u0dcf \u0d85\u0dc0\u0dc1\u0dca\u200d\u0dba \u0db4\u0dd4\u0dc4\u0dd4\u0dab\u0dd4\u0dc0 \u0dbd\u0db6\u0dcf\u0d9c\u0dd0\u0db1\u0dd3\u0db8\u0da7 \u0d85\u0dc0\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0daf\u0dd4 \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dc3\u0dd2\u0db4\u0dc4\u0d9a\u0da7 \u0d85\u0db0\u0dd2\u0d9a \u0d9a\u0dcf\u0dbd\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca \u0d9c\u0dad \u0d9a\u0dd2\u0dbb\u0dd3\u0db8\u0da7 \u0dc3\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0dda .\u00a0 But he has stated that he had only four years of undergraduate mathematics and just one and a half years in modern physics!\u00a0 Many of his pronouncements on the quantum theory, of photons having mass, photons scattering like marbles, his views on\u00a0 Einstein’s famous E=MC2 law, or that of de Broglie, seem to be based on\u00a0 loose material found in\u00a0 popular books like that of Jim Baggot that he quotes, even without correcting simple errors found in that book. When I pointed all this out he twists his own words and says \u0db8\u0dd9\u0dc4\u0dd2 \u0d85\u0dc0\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0daf\u0dd4 \u0dc0\u0dd2\u0dc3\u0dd2\u0db4\u0dc4\u0d9a\u0dca \u0dba\u0db1\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca \u0d85\u0daf\u0dc4\u0dc3\u0dca \u0d9a\u0dbb\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0dda \u0dc0\u0dba\u0dc3 \u0dba. \u0d92 \u0db8\u0dd2\u0dc3 \u0dad\u0db8\u0db1\u0dca \u0d85\u0daf\u0dcf\u0dc5 \u0d9a\u0dca\u200d\u0dc2\u0dd9\u0dad\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dba \u0db4\u0db8\u0dab\u0d9a\u0dca \u0d89\u0d9c\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dd3\u0db8\u0da7 \u0d9c\u0dad\u0d9a\u0dbd \u0d9a\u0dcf\u0dbd\u0dba \u0db1\u0ddc \u0dc0\u0dda\u201d\u00a0 twenty fivers years means the age, and not the time needed to study the given field\u201d. The readers can judge that Dr. Silva is a good follower of the hypocritical creed of the Jesuits.<\/p>\n

What Einstein has said about Gravity.<\/strong>
\nA perusal of the technical works of Einstein is sufficient to show that Einstein warned against imagining that ‘gravitational attraction is merely something apparent, and not a part of reality’, even though some popular writers have begun to present such distortions.\u00a0 Writers like Nalin de Silva say so perhaps to shock the reader and appear a notch above ordinary mortals\u201d who believe in gravity!<\/p>\n

So let us\u00a0 go to Einstein’s own writings to see\u00a0 what he said, after a brief summary.<\/p>\n

What Einstein did was to give an explanation for gravity. Although Newton said that two masses (e.g., the earth and the moon) will attract each other, the nature of this force was left unstated.\u00a0 According to Einstein, what we call “mass” is a warping or curvature of the “fabric of space-time” which is\u00a0 where all events happen. Spacetime IS the entirety of of all events which involve three space dimensions and one time dimension.\u00a0 A planet placed\u00a0 near a big object like the sun contributes its own warping of spacetime, and together define\u00a0 “a valley” (where the warping is least) between them. The “orbit of the planet” is along this least warped (locally flat) path, called a geodesic. So, perhaps everything can be explained in terms of the warping of spacetime, and its gradients. Mis-representing this,\u00a0 popular writers have jump in to say that there is “no gravity needed”. But this is very far from the truth.<\/p>\n

If curvature in spacetime is identified as mass, and\u00a0 since mass is energy (by E=MC2), then this curvature is nothing but potential energy. The gradient of a potential energy is a force. Hence the gravitational force is alive and well in Einstein’s theory. The curvature is not the force of gravity, but it is a potential producing a gravitational force.\u00a0 [The gradient is called an “affine connection” in the technical literature where the curvature is given as a tensor. However,\u00a0 for simplicity we can think of a model where space has only one dimension, while time is the second dimension.]<\/p>\n

We select three of Einstein’s\u00a0 texts\u00a0 and quote from places without mathematics.<\/p>\n

1. From: Relativity, The special and General Theory, 15th edition, by Albert Einstein, 1959, p 176.
\n“Now we might easily suppose that the existence of a gravitational field is only an apparent one. We might also think that, regardless of the kind of gravitational field which may be present, we could always choose another reference-body such that no gravitational field exists with reference to it. This is by no means true for all gravitational fields, but only for those of quite special form. It is, for instance, impossible to choose a body of reference such that, as judged from it, the gravitational field of the earth (in its entirety) vanishes .<\/p>\n

2. From: Einstein’s famous\u00a0 Analen der Physik, article, 1916, reprinted as “Principle of Relativity” in Dover Publications\u00a0 pages\u00a0 111 et sec.).
\n“Of course we cannot replace any arbitrary gravitational field by a state of motion of the system without a gravitational field, any more than, by a transformation of relativity, we can transform all points of a medium in any kind of motion to rest.”<\/p>\n

3. From: Page 58, The meaning of relativity, by A. Einstein, Princeton, 1921.
\n“Space-time regions of finite extent are, in general, not Galilean, so that a gravitational field cannot be done away with by any choice of co-ordinates in a finite region “.<\/p>\n

So the reader can evaluate the claims of Dr. Nalin de Silva and writers of his ilk regarding what Einstein said. Their claim is simply\u00a0 a “patta-pal-boruvak” (a rotten lie).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada Einstein published his new theory of gravitation in 1915. Its centenary has produced many popular articles explaining this seminal theory that plays a vital role even in everyday life. When\u00a0 you use a GPS to locate where you are,\u00a0 it uses four satellite signals to solve Einstein’s field equations whose solutions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}