Einstein & Feynman Myths

by Asa Boxer

From left: Richard Feynman (1918-1988), Albert Einstein (1879-1955), David Berlinski (b. 1942).

Enter Einstein who proposed that Gravitation arises not from an unexplained mysterious “force,” but that instead, it is an epiphenomenon of bent space arising from a space-bending property inherent in matter. Many observations have confirmed this hypothesis. Indeed the bending of spacetime through gravitational lensing has found confirmation through astronomical observations of galaxies through powerful telescopes. Despite its being a crazy idea, no better explanation to my knowledge has been forthcoming. In what sense is the idea of bent space kind of kooky? As Newton had warned in his Principia:

those violate the accuracy of language, which ought to be kept precise, who interpret these words [time, space, place, and motion] for the measured quantities. Nor do those less defile the purity of mathematical and philosophical truths, who confound real quantities with their relations [analogies] …