Propagation Through Vacuum/empty space

[dipayankar]

I thought Einstein stumbled over black holes but discarded the theory because he believed that the Universe could not house such extremities...

Black Holes were predicted as a consquence of his theories by others, and match up with certain phenomenon we've found.

If you discard GR, then most of modern physics goes too, Quantum theories these days include Relativistic considerations.

If you think you can discard SR and keep GR, you should know that GR reduces to SR in a low gravity/mass scenario.

[Felix Schrodinger]

If you think you can discard SR and keep GR, you should know that GR reduces to SR in a low gravity/mass scenario.

You're not listening Max - it's the drawing of unreasonable conclusions from SR not the theory itself. Please pay attention.

Felix

[Max™]

SR and it's conclusions are by definition included in GR, you can't have the cereal without the bowl.

Plus, thinking that SR is used to reject the aether is backwards and mistaken, as has been said and clarified for those of us who were paying attention.

SR was proposed because an aether which exists separate from the vacuum and filled it, did not fit observations of the universe. So from that rejection, Einstein concluded that the universe behaves in a certain way, which he began describing in SR, and advanced with GR, incorporating completely his previous work. GR reduces to SR, SR reduces to Newtonian Mechanics, you can't simply toss out parts which you dislike without removing the whole thing.

[dipayankar]

Definition of SR

'
Special relativity (SR) (also known as the special theory of relativity or STR) is the physical theory of measurement in inertial frames of reference proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein (after the considerable and independent contributions of Hendrik Lorentz and Henri Poincaré and others) in the paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies".[1] It generalizes Galileo's principle of relativity–that all uniform motion is relative, and that there is no absolute and well-defined state of rest (no privileged reference frames)–from mechanics to all the laws of physics, including both the laws of mechanics and of electrodynamics, whatever they may be.[2] Special relativity incorporates the principle that the speed of light is the same for all inertial observers regardless of the state of motion of the source.[3]'

Definition of GR

General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the state-of-the-art description of gravity in modern physics. It unifies special relativity and Newton's law of universal gravitation, and describes gravity as a property of the geometry of space and time, or spacetime. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the four-momentum (mass-energy and linear momentum) of whatever matter and radiation are present. The relation is specified by the Einstein field equations, a system of partial differential equations.


Sorry to butt in guys. However from these definitions how do we integrate SR, GR, and gravity? If they can be unified, why do we need three definitions?

[Max™]

It unifies special relativity and Newton's law of universal gravitation, and describes gravity as a property of the geometry of space and time, or spacetime.

Right there.

In low energy situations, SR reduces to Newton, and GR reduces to SR.

[dipayankar]

Somehow it seems like quantum Mechanics and Relativity. In high energy situation, we need to find out why these forces get differenciated...

Right there.

In low energy situations, SR reduces to Newton, and GR reduces to SR.

[AntonioLao]

I wanted to know if there is any specific material in vacuum

The absolute vacuum is composed of infinitely many distinct types of quantum field. Some already detected but some not. The first field detected was the electromagnetic field. This was verified by the experiments of Casimir effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect