Tests of Whitehead's Theory
Whitehead's theory makes the same predictions as general relativity regarding the four classical solar system tests (gravitational red shift, light bending, perihelion shift, Shapiro time delay), and was regarded as a viable competitor of general relativity for several decades. Clifford M. Will claims that the theory makes predictions concerning ordinary ocean tides on Earth which are in violent disagreement with observation (specifically, the theory predicts a "sidereal tide", induced by the gravitational field of the Milky Way, which is hundreds of times stronger than the solar and lunar tides) which immediately nullified this theory. As mentioned previously, the interpretation of the theory used by Will has been criticized by Fowler, who has also argued that different tidal predictions can be obtained by a more realistic model of the galaxy.
In 1989, a new interpretation of Whitehead's theory was proposed that eliminated the unobserved sidereal tide effects. However, the new interpretation predicted a new, unobserved, effect, called the "Nordtvedt Effect."
Read more about this topic: Whitehead's Theory Of Gravitation
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