Short explanations, Chapter V

Gordon and Eddington's optical equivalence

RSI reads the known mathematical equivalence between curved spacetime and a graded optical medium as a literal physical description of gravity.

In 1923, physicist Walter Gordon showed that the geometry of the Schwarzschild metric, the General Relativity solution for the space around a mass, can be reproduced entirely by treating space as a flat optical medium with a varying refractive index. Arthur Eddington, whose 1919 eclipse observations of the 1.75 arcsecond deflection made General Relativity famous, acknowledged this equivalence. He noted that a gravitational field behaves like a glass lens of varying density.

The standard view treats this equivalence as an optical analogy, a convenient geometric coincidence. RSI rejects the coincidence. The theory holds that Gordon's derivation and Eddington's lens describe the literal hydrodynamic reality. The mathematics of curved spacetime mimics a fluid density gradient because gravity is a fluid density gradient in the Eternal Consonance. In this account, gravitation returns to the physical mechanics of optical refraction.

From the paper: Chapter V, Gravity: The Macro-Scale Gradient. Read the full section

Have a question about this idea, or want to check the numbers?

Ask RSI about this idea