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EtherNyet enhancement experiment?

I haven’t investigated the rest of this site, but if what it has to say about ether here is even fractionally correct, then there’s an exciting little physics experiment or two lurking in the woodwork for someone... (-:

Comments

Leon RJ Brooks said…
There are a couple of interesting quotables in that, for example:

Miller devised a technique that enabled him to estimate the absolute velocity of the earth's motion as being some 208 kilometres per second. He was also able to determine from the data that the disc of the solar system was tilted up almost at right angles against the direction of motion. He wrote, "This suggests that the solar system might be thought of as a dynamic disc that is being pulled through a resisting medium, and which therefore sets itself perpendicular to the line of motion."

...also...

Says James de Meo, 'This kind of chronic misrepresentation of the slight positive results of many interferometer experimenters [...] suggests an extreme bias and deliberate misrepresentation. The fact that this is a very popular bias does not excuse it. By redefining all the positive results observed by what may in fact have been the majority of ether-drift researchers, as mere expressions of "observational inaccuracy", Shankland narrowed his task considerably'

Harping on the negative aspects, yes, but with excellent explanatory potential and interesting depth of scope.
Leon RJ Brooks said…
Thanks, Paul, for the pointers.

I've seen skepdic blunder things a few times, too (I guess that's fair and inclusive, overall), so if the Moon ever turns blue again and I'm asked to do a random physics experiment, this looks like it would be an interesting contender for the title — and not too difficult a burden to work through, overall.

At worst (least interesting result, to me), I'd make another modern refutal, and I could say "I tried this" and there are small but finite odds that it would all turn kind of interesting in the end regardless of expectations. Since I'm not a ticketed phsyicist, I could probably survive that. (-:

WRT the no-cerebrum experiments from the same site, it's kind of a QED in many ed-sites and workplaces anyway. (-:
Leon RJ Brooks said…
It'll take time to work through enough to make a clearish decision, but meanwhile sections like the Alt Book Reviews are (at their worst) quite entertaining.
Leon RJ Brooks said…
Quotable quote (from the Flame Proof page):

One other interesting consequence is that the large corporations who had rejected his initial approaches in such a knee-jerk fashion, conducted internal inquests to find out what had gone wrong, both with their own research and with their dealings with the outside world.

On the face of it, it was perfectly understandable that Ward's claims should be ignored since he was merely an amateur, with no scientific training and no track record in research.

ICI's own paints laboratory held an internal audit and what they found puts this claim in an entirely different light. For the audit showed that the most scientifically qualified of its research chemists had contributed to the least number of patents, and the fewer scientific qualifications the staff possessed, the greater the number of patents they had contributed to. In the most striking case of all, the person who had contributed to most ICI's patents had no scientific qualifications at all.

Yeah, well, that will not happen every time, but nevertheless...there's a true experiential resonance with Real Life wrapped in there.

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