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A comment on How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009).

Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by maaaats on Thursday May 14, 2015 @05:26AM (#9544111)
I used to discuss these kind of theories online. Or, rather, these kind of people would visit the forums/boards I used to visit, and then present their "great ground shaking theories". As the author here states, most of these theories had fundamental flaws. New particles named after themselves that didn't explain anything the model of physics does today. Or the theories weren't consistent with observations, for instance they failed to explain how pushing one object of 1kg into another object would end up.

Most of these people were old, many engineers (edit: which the article agrees with) with a former basic knowledge of physics. They kinda reminds me of the old professor in the movie "Proof", that has lost grip on reality and invented his own "proofs". Or the movie "A beautiful mind" when he's on his worst. It's a bit sad, really.

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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by tormeh on Thursday May 14, 2015 @05:37AM (#9544143)
A prof at a small college I know apparently found something wrong with relativity. Tried to publish, but got brushed off in the peer review. The troublesome thing was that his reaction was "fine, I'll go back to teaching, then". A little bitter, but he just gave up. Maybe he was just wrong, but he's smart and definitely not fanatical.
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by nitrogen on Thursday May 14, 2015 @06:07AM (#9544218)
There is always the Internet.
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by tormeh on Thursday May 14, 2015 @06:29AM (#9544268)
No, that's the point. He doesn't care enough to try to make others pay attention. He just went on with his life. Unusually mentally healthy crackpot? Perhaps.
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by badpenny on Thursday May 14, 2015 @06:58AM (#9544337)
Or maybe he was just wrong.
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by chriswarbo on Thursday May 14, 2015 @08:34AM (#9544716)
It might not be of interest to cutting-edge researchers, but I think it's still important from a pedagogical perspective to see what mistakes are made by intelligent, educated, non-crackpots who think they've found a glaring error, or some fantastical consequence.

Usually it would be some common mistake/misconception, eg. applying special relativity in a non-intertial reference frame, but occasionally it might give a real insight into the analogies and methods used to teach a concept.

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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by tormeh on Thursday May 14, 2015 @07:12AM (#9544388)
Yeah, probably. I just like it more when wrong people are angry. Calm, reasonable but also wrong people make me uneasy.

Say that you encounter a conspiracy theorist. When you point out that his theory is crazy, you don't want him to propose to agree to disagree, right? At that point, I feel like I might be wrong, because I'm the most argumentative. Get what I mean?

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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by darkmighty on Thursday May 14, 2015 @07:44AM (#9544492)
I really like this principle from cryptography:

"Anyone can make a cryptosystem that he himself cannot break."

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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by bitJericho on Thursday May 14, 2015 @05:28AM (#9544117)
I tried to argue with a crackpot once and even recommended psychiatric help if needed and all it did was make me feel terrible, it did not convince the crackpot. Needless to say I've now resigned to just ignoring them altogether.
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by vixen99 on Thursday May 14, 2015 @05:32AM (#9544125)
Nice segue from 'a crackpot' to 'them'. They have labels pasted all over them so no difficulty in crossing to the other side of the street.
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by bitJericho on Thursday May 14, 2015 @05:51AM (#9544178)
Well crackpots are different from me, in that I don't believe I'm one, so yes there is indeed a difference between myself and "them". Sorry if I'm not politically correct enough for you. Just to clarify, I have no issue with crackpots, mentally ill people, whatever you want to call them. My only point is that trying to convince someone that they are a crackpot is not going to work, at least over the internet!
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by JadeNB on Thursday May 14, 2015 @09:19AM (#9544976)
I think the claim is not so much that you are or might be a crackpot, as that it's too easy to misdiagnose a genuine revolutionary as a crackpot. The canonical example for mathematicians is Ramanujan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan); Hardy would have been perfectly justified in thinking him a crackpot and throwing away his letters, and one of the most valuable collaborations in number theory would never have happened.
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by EGreg on Thursday May 14, 2015 @06:55AM (#9544325)
I love something about this comment. But what!
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by waterlesscloud on Thursday May 14, 2015 @05:54AM (#9544183)
Why is it sad? At least they're doing something they enjoy doing with their time.
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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by tfinniga on Thursday May 14, 2015 @07:17AM (#9544404)
I imagine it's very frustrating for them. It also wastes quite a bit of other people's time. And, they're wrong, so the whole thing is a waste.

Just take up fishing or something. Or if you really want to get into physics, enrol in a PhD program, or even some online courses.

Physics is weird and unintuitive, but that's just because we're living in a simulation which was sloppily coded by the lizard people.

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Re:How I found glaring errors in Einstein's calculations (2009) by DanBC on Thursday May 14, 2015 @06:54AM (#9544322)
Smegal posted this link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9544163

If you read that the person involved doesn't seem to be enjoying the experience; they frequently attack others; they take up quite a lot of time; etc.

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