quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
I remember reading when one of Einstein’s theories was proven correct.

A contemporary of Einstein looked at a bust, may have been a portrait, “Forgive us, Sir Isaac, your universe has been overthrown.”

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
I remember reading when one of Einstein’s theories was proven correct.

A contemporary of Einstein looked at a bust, may have been a portrait, “Forgive us, Sir Isaac, your universe has been overthrown.”

Actually, both of his major theories, Special Relativity and General Relativity, have been proved by experimental observations.

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
I remember reading when one of Einstein’s theories was proven correct.

A contemporary of Einstein looked at a bust, may have been a portrait, “Forgive us, Sir Isaac, your universe has been overthrown.”

Actually, both of his major theories, Special Relativity and General Relativity, have been proved by experimental observations.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
None of Einstein’s theories have been proven.

They have been experimentally supported, but relativity is still a theory, not a scientific law.

Newton’s laws are a law, it’s just been refined to note that in some circumstances it does not apply ( they now preface it with the conditions it applies in.)

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
I remember reading when one of Einstein’s theories was proven correct.

A contemporary of Einstein looked at a bust, may have been a portrait, “Forgive us, Sir Isaac, your universe has been overthrown.”

Actually, both of his major theories, Special Relativity and General Relativity, have been proved by experimental observations.

quote:

Originally posted by RolandtheHeadless:
Special Relativity Theory defies common sense. It showed that the speed of light is a constant regardless of the direction of travel.

Suppose you stand in a speeding train and shoot a gun toward the front of the train. The speed of the bullet, relative to the earth, is velocity of the train plus velocity of bullet out of the gun. If you shoot toward the rear of the train, you'd subtract the train's velocity from bullet velocity to find the velocity of the bullet relative to the ground.

Common sense tells you the same should happen with a beam of light. It doesn't. The speed of light is the same whether you shoot toward the front or rear of the train. What happens instead is that the wavelength of light becomes longer. From the perspective of the bullet, a light from the front of the train would, while not changing velocity, shift into red wavelengths, a so-called red shift.

To date, every test of the above confirms the Theory of Special Relativity.

quote:

Originally posted by crbutler:
Relativity is a theory. It has not been fully tested, and really cannot until we develop more technology so as to test the whole theory.

It is not a scientific law, but has been verified to some extent as holding generally... but with exceptions.

As from Popular Mechanics:

Einstein put together huge theories about the nature of gravity and time, working with what he was able to know at the time. Since then, advances in the entire field known as quantum mechanics have called certain of Einstein’s ideas into question in certain contexts. These are almost all on the molecular or particular scale in a way Einstein simply had no way to observe—the same way he never had an optical lattice clock.

from:
https://www.popularmechanics.c...g-theory-relativity/

That an atomic bomb works is evidence that the theory holds... but is it absolutely true, or are there situations that show this wrong?

We don't know.

Thus it is a theory.

But, I agree that it hasn't been disproven.

I also am a bit uncertain just how much a theory has to be proven before it becomes accepted as a scientific law. I have heard that laws are just accepted as factual... I don't know.

I do know that Einstein's theories are being continually tested, and at least hold true as far as we have been able to test them, excepting using quantum theory.