Stephen Sekula (steve@chirp.cooleysekula.net)'s status on Wednesday, 01-Feb-2017 12:46:01 UTC
-
Let's say that what you just said - for instance, space not warping and time not dilating - was true. In that case, it should have been possible to launch the global positioning satellite system (which I assume you use for navigation - if not, I am certain something you rely on uses it, given its modern ubiquity) and just uses the radio signals from the satellites, uncorrected for time dilation, to navigate. But if you do that - if you neglect time's stretching due to gravity and motion, the GPS system is more and more off every day by an additional 10km. This is because time passes differently in the satellites than down on earth, owing to their high speed and our position in a stronger gravitational field. Once you correct for that using the basic equations of special and general relativity, voila! The GPS system is accurate again. This is just one example. If you rely on this system, it's dangerous to reject these ideas. They care central to it working at all.