The basic idea, as I understand it, is to work on a Euclidean coordinate system for space, and use Newtonian time, that is, universal time.

This allows gravitation to be treated the same as all the other forces in physics, rather than as the strange thing that Einstein came up with.

I think that the universe is very big, and we are very small. Even a galaxy is very small. So it doesn’t seem likely to me that “black holes” can exist in that they would modify spacetime so badly as to create a singularity in it. Instead, I will go with the particle (i.e. graviton) theory of gravity that works on flat space and says that a black hole is just an extreme gravitational field that you get when you put too much mass too close together.

About the wiki, yes, I know. When I will set it up, I will announce it at PF and we will see how it goes. (I am still waiting for the evaluation of my post in the IR forum, it seems Tom is still bogged down by work.) I was hoping that you would be one of the contributors to the wiki, along with some other posters in PF (unfortunately, I cannot reciprocate, the stuff you do is rather over my head). However, I should have included a mention to your wikis in my post (AFAIK you are the first to implement this idea).

Your GR simulation is great. I will try to build one also, from a different angle as I explain in my post. I will give more details of how I see it when I set up the wiki.

About the diffraction simulation, I build it for myself, to see what pattern it would give for classical bodies. I have no problem with the EM diffraction patterns, what I wanted to check was the diffraction patterns for particles, and to make sure that it is different than the one we would get if instead of doing this experiment with particles we did it with classical bodies.

About your objection regarding the effect of narrowing the slit, yes, it would seem so, but there may be other effects at play also, which we may be unable to anticipate. That’s why I am saying that maybe someone should perform such experiments with classical bodies (for instance, grains of sand).

Also, I am not sure if in the particle diffraction experiments they have looked at how the pattern changes if you change the width and length of the slit, the distance of the wall from the source and the distance of the screen from the wall, to see if its consistent with wave behavior or with particle behavior. So, we definetely know that if we make the slit more narrow the pattern gets wider for EM waves. Do we know this for particles? I mean know experimentally, not as an inference based on the assumption that particles have the same pattern with EM waves.

Finally, any comments about what I am proposing for SR?

I set up a wiki on my various physics websites and didn’t get much response. Part of the problem is that putting stuff into wiki form isn’t perfectly trivial.

I love your java. I also write the stuff, and I make my source code public. Here’s my GR simulator (which is incorrect but pretty): java GR sim

I’ll fix the equations when I get some down time from work.

Your java for the “diffraction” effect is accurate for a slit with a mirror finish that is much larger than a wavelength of light. But I can’t see how this will reach the usual E&M result in the small limit.

For example, in the real case, if you keep the thickness constant and change the size of the hole, the diffraction spreads out as the size of the whole gets smaller. It seems to me that your simulation would give the opposite result.

The subject of what happens when light bounces down mirrored paths like your applet is called “non imaging optics”. It is used in technologies like solar cookers and “light pipes”.

CarlB