1 J.L.SYNGE on 2 WHITEHEAD’S PRINCIPLE OF RELATIV- ITY. 2.1 APPENDIX A: Solar Limb-Effect; B: Figures 2.2 Critically edited by A. John Coleman, 2.3 Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada. 2.4 2.5 Dogmatic Opinions and Objective Thoughts of the Editor.
[email protected] It was the opinion of Professor Synge in 1951 - probably until his death -, as it is my opinion in 2005 that the evidence for the validity of Einstein’s and of Whitehead’s theories of Gravitation is roughly of equal value. Neither Synge nor I would claim that either is “Correct” . Certainly, Whitehead would be the last to do so. I refer to these theories as GRT and PR. Since GRT is the dominant faith among current relativists, am I not, in the words of Synge’s Introduction, “attempting to exhume a corpse” by men- tioning Einstein’s and Whitehead’s Theories in the same breath? Has not our Sacred College1 spoken, dismissing Whitehead with faint praise and a passsing reference, in 1970? Both PR and GRT presuppose the validity of Einstein’s Special theory(SRT ). C.M. Will, in his discussion2 of PR, states in foot-note (3) that, as regards theAdvance of the perihelion, the Bending of light and the Retardation of elec- tromagnetic signals, the two theories are both within the limits of observation. However, he also claimed , by a complicated argument concerning the local gravitational constant, G, that he had administered the coup de grace to PR arXiv:physics/0505027v2 [physics.gen-ph] 19 May 2005 just as, in my opinion, QM has done to GRT.