Majorana's Experiments and Russell's Criticism
Some shielding experiments were conducted in the early 20th century by Majorana. Majorana claimed to have measured positive shielding effects. Henry Norris Russell's analysis of the tidal forces showed that Majorana's positive results had nothing to do with gravitational shielding. To bring Majorana's experiments in accordance with the equivalence principle of General Relativity he proposed a model, in which the mass of a body is diminished by the proximity of another body, but he denied any connection between gravitational shielding and his proposal of mass variation. For another explanation of Majorana's experiments, see Coïsson et al. But Majorana's results couldn't be confirmed up to this day (see the section above) and Russell's mass variation theory, although meant as a modification of general relativity, is inconsistent with standard physics as well.
For a historical review of efforts to detect any effects of gravitational shielding in the early 20th century, see the article by Martins.
Read more about this topic: Gravitational Shielding
Famous quotes containing the words experiments, russell and/or criticism:
“There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge available to us: observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–1784)
“The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere.”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)
“A bad short story or novel or poem leaves one comparatively calm because it does not exist, unless it gets a fake prestige through being mistaken for good work. It is essentially negative, it is something that has not come through. But over bad criticism one has a sense of real calamity.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)