 The Final Theory
"The Final Theory" is a sponser link on this site. Has anyone read this book? I've looked at the chapter summaries and the "science flaws" sections provided on the website and have come away, once again, disturbed by how people can try to tear apart theories they obviously don't understand. The main principle this book appears to be working on is a new theory of gravity, based on a new "atomic principle" (a statement of which does not appear in the summaries) and the supposed discovery (theoretical discovery I presume) of a new subatomic particle with properties to explain all their suppositions.
It seems to be garbage to me. The author talks about Newtonian, Einsteinian, and Quantum gravities and feels there are dire flaws in each. Yet two of the "impossible" questions he talks about are flawed if you know these theories. First the author talks about a perpetual oscillator created by drilling a hole through the Earth and dropping an object into the hole. Yes, in Newtonian gravity theory this object will oscillate forever. (I'm not entirely certain about GR's take on this, but I presume it also predicts an infinite lifetime for the oscillator.) However Quantum Gravity clearly indicates that any such oscillator will be the source of gravitational radiation, taking energy out of the system and thus damping the oscillation. It's not perpetual. The second topic is that a refrigerator magnet will stay stuck to a refrigerator forever. Again, not true. Statistical mechanics says that no magnet can last forever; the magnetic domains depolarize over time. Very slowly so as to seem forever, but it has a calculable lifetime.
I realize that the Forum needs sponsorship, but I am a little disappointed that we would be sponsering such "scholarship." I can only hope the reason is that the Forum has little choice over the specific nature of the links in the sponsorship.
I am, of course, prepared to retract my statements if someone that has read the book can show that the book's arguments ARE in fact based on good science.
-Dan
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"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - The Litany Against Fear, "Dune" by Frank Herbert | 
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