Re:Universe May Contain “Tardis” Regions Bigger On The Insid...
by pdonis on Thursday September 12, 2013 @01:39PM
(#6375570)
the physicist quoted in the blog post, who is mystified as to how his keys thrown upward could accelerate toward the ceiling
This is another way in which the blog post incorrectly describes the mainstream theory. (Trying to arrive at a good description of what a theory says based on a sound bite in a non-technical article is a waste of time anyway; you need to look at the actual technical literature.)
In the blog post's model, the apparent acceleration up towards the ceiling is achieved by launching the keys upward at almost the speed of light. But in the mainstream dark energy model, if our spacetime locally was dark energy dominated, you could release the keys at rest relative to you, and they would accelerate, in the coordinate sense, up towards the ceiling (instead of accelerating, in the coordinate sense, down towards the floor, as you would expect with normal gravity). That's what the physicist quoted in the NatGeo article was actually describing.
This is another way in which the blog post incorrectly describes the mainstream theory. (Trying to arrive at a good description of what a theory says based on a sound bite in a non-technical article is a waste of time anyway; you need to look at the actual technical literature.)
In the blog post's model, the apparent acceleration up towards the ceiling is achieved by launching the keys upward at almost the speed of light. But in the mainstream dark energy model, if our spacetime locally was dark energy dominated, you could release the keys at rest relative to you, and they would accelerate, in the coordinate sense, up towards the ceiling (instead of accelerating, in the coordinate sense, down towards the floor, as you would expect with normal gravity). That's what the physicist quoted in the NatGeo article was actually describing.