Sunday, December 1, 2019

VERY LARGE and VERY SMALL

I believe that all of the microscopic physical constants are known to high accuracy and to high precision...perhaps to more than 8 significant figures. However the 2 key parameters in Einstein's equations of relativity are not known to high accuracy and to high precision. G, the gravitational constant is known for certainty to only 4 significant figures and there is some dispute about these numbers. The other parameters in Einstein's theory are "lambda", the cosmological constant, and "c" the speed of light. "lambda" appears to be known only to its closest power of ten...but "c" is known to high accuracy and high precision. It is no wonder that there is so much dispute about how much matter and energy the Universe is comprised of and how much of the Universe is not matter and energy...because we know so little about the basic parameters in Einstein's theory of relativity. You do not need to know about tensorial calculus to understand that the General Theory of Relativity has a lot of physical imprecision in its equations. But the Eddington constants may help to resolve these uncertainties maybe. At the extremes of mass, i.e. binary star systems, the equations of relativity are reported to work well...but in situations of less extreme and more moderate masses perhaps less is well known about gravity...and our understanding of it is not necessarily accurate..

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