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Archive 5←Archive 10Archive 11Archive 12

Gamma or Beta?

I originally prepared the footnote equations using the greek gamma for the factor 1/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2), since that is the most common convention. However, two things caused me to change it to beta, which has historically been the second most common symbol used for that factor. First, I noticed that the lower-case gamma symbol doesn't render very well in HTML. At least on my browser, the lower part gets truncated, so it's unrecognizable, looking more like a V. Second, I noticed that Whitrow actually used beta, so it is actually more consistent with the reference to use beta. (Also, note that Einsein's 1905 paper used beta.) Dingle in 1967 used 1/a, so that doesn't agree with either convention. So, on balance, it seemed (and seems) to me that beta is the better choice. Denveron 17:08, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the little gamma looks like a capital V now. As long as the math is inline and in the notes section, keeping the notation more or less intact is good. However, if the math is to be unburried (which I think should be done, since it is central) to the main article, I think it's better to use current notation (with gamma). The gamma we have now really looks... ugly :-) - DVdm 18:11, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
Huh, hadn't heard that before. I'm used to seeing β for v/c. However, as long as it's defined right there, I guess it'll be okay.
—wwoods 19:42, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
Denveron, in the process of changing the gammas to betas, you reverted all the other formatting changes I made, including fixing the spelling of "alledged". Did you mean to do that?
—wwoods 07:04, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, I missed that you corrected "alleged". I have fixed that now. The rest of the formatting was intentional, only becase the was I formatted it looks more readable on my screen. Italisizing variables in expressions like t'/t makes them almosr unreadable in my browser, and the same for the squared symbols. Denveron 05:03, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Housecleaning

This seems like an appropriate time to straighten things out. I have a few suggestions. Please add your own, implement them, disagree with them, et cetera.

Tim Shuba 23:11, 22 October 2007 (UTC)


Tim, the talk page still being disrupted, I think perhaps it's a bit too soon? - DVdm 10:51, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Are you sure? Funny, it looks rather clean to me. Could be a browser problem on my end. Tim Shuba 11:12, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Well, we waited, didn't we? - DVdm 12:21, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Huh, Tim, you didn't archive the talk page - you just erased it. I have copied the content of the previous version to a new archive. - DVdm 12:37, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

If you biased editors would write a fair article you wouldnt have this problem.Electrodynamicist 13:18, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Semiprotection

We gain nothing for this page to be unprotected due to Dr. Seaweed's nonsense postings (as well as new behavioral information). As such, I've semiprotected this talk page.—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 21:06, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I will also note that Swanzsteve is not the sockpuppeteer, and is not banned in any way shape or form.—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 03:56, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

An Unnecessary Fact ?

A recent edit has removed the phrase "after his retirement" from the preamble to the discussion of Dingle's campaign against special relativity, which Dingle himself tells us (in Crossroads) was sparked in 1955 and continued until his death in 1978. Sincle Dingle retired in 1955, there doesn't seems to be any dispute over the accuracy and verifiability of the statement that this dispute took place "after his retirement". The phrase has been removed with the justification that it is "unnecessary", because the dates of both his retirement and the beginning of the dispute are given (in separate places) in the article, and hence the reader can deduce the phrase for himself, so it doesn't need to be stated. This is certainly true, although it treads a fine line, because when writing to convey to the reader an accurate sense of the chronology of events, it is customary and useful to intersperse notes of comparative and related events. This helps to orient the reader and place the events in the correct chronological context without requiring the reader to check back to previously stated dates and reconstruct the sequence of events.

The usual rules of Wikipedia editing are someone ambiguous on this point. The basic criteria is verifiability from reliable sources, but no one disputes that this is a verifiably accurate statement, and also that it is relevant and notable. The question is whether it is appropriate or "necessary" to include that (verifiably accurate) phrase at this point in the article. This is where the POV of individual editors may play a role, but the article ends up reflecting one POV or the other, regardless of whether the verifiably accurate phrase is retained or suppressed. If it is retained, some can argue that it calls undue attention to the fact that the dispute occurred after Dingle's retirement, but if it is suppressed some can argue that we are suppressing verifiable facts expressly to avoid calling these facts to the reader's attention, and the only reason to avoid the facts is because they tend to undermine a particular POV. Of course, the counter-argument is that if a POV tends to be undermined by calling verifiable facts to people's attention, then perhaps that POV has an inherent weakness, and in any case, POVs are not supposed to be reflected in the article.

Hmmm... a real puzzle. I suppose one way of resolving such issues in Wikipedia is to simply acknowledge when there are multiple POVs, and make note of them. For example, following the sentence in question, we could add a parenthetical statement such as:

("This dispute took place following Dingle's retirement, a fact which may or may not be worth noting at this point. Some sources [cite] emphasize Dingle's advanced age and isolation during this dispute, whereas other sources [cite] regard these factors as irrelevant to the dispute.")

How about that? Would this make everyone happy? I think this would be most in accord with the established Wikipedia policies for handling and resolving situations in which either mentioning or not mentioning a verifiable fact can be construed as POV. If this isn't acceptable, can anyone suggest any alternative? Denveron 02:13, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Denveron - this is quite amusing since you reverted mention of Dingle's title of 'Professor Emeritus' your justification was that it had been previously stated that he retired in 1955 and was therefore superfluous. Now you want to add a second reference to his retirement, but now its justified, since it might help the poor dim-witted reader. LOL, You are so transparent - Swanzsteve 23:50, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Just to be clear, I should have added that I personally think the right solution is to simply state the fact, as in the previous version of the article. Adding a special note to comment on the different points of view has the effect of calling even more attention to the issue. Editors should bear in mind that both Davies and Whitrow, when describing this episode, made special note of the chronology (saying "in his later years", and "The last 20 years of his life"), so it seems to me the status quo ante was quite representative of how the subject is covered in verifiable reputable sources. I think the latest edit is an attempt to impose the POV of an editor by suppressing and modifying how the episode is described in reputable sources. And, again, the phrase is question is agreed by everyone to be a verifiable fact, so it's just a question of whether mentioning this fact explicitly (instead of making the reader infer it from separate dates) is appropriate. The reputable sources all judge that it is appropriate, so I think that should be the default position. Denveron 02:34, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

"... the phrase has been removed with the justification that it is "unnecessary"..." ==> I have put the phrase back with the justification that the removal of the fact was unnecessary. Academics have much more time to shape and hone their publications after their retirement, so I think this is a significant fact. Perhaps the objection from the contributor who removed the fact was inspired by the (sorry, i.m.o. somewhat paranoic) suspection that someone would like to hint at dementia? In that case, quite on the contrary, I'd say. - DVdm 09:21, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
You are correct. It is important to notice that after his retirement Dingle had more time to persue the relativity question without embarassment to his academic affiliations.Electrodynamicist 13:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Dingle Never Lost His Respect for Einstein's Genius?

A recent edit added the statement, referenced to the Whitrow obituary, that Dingle never lost his respect for Einstein's genius. If that statement is going to be retained, it should be placed in the correct context. All the other verifiable facts in the article can be found in multiple sources, and we've just selected one or two for convenience, but the statement that Dingle never lost respect for Einstein's genius appears only in the obituary, accompanying a similar make-nice statement about Eddington (who was savaged and ridiculed by Dingle in "The Sources of Eddington's Philosophy). Mature readers understand that this is an example of the protocol for writing obituaries, in which everything is "made nice" even after describing (as gently as possible) disputes with other individuals. This is why, if this Wiki article was being written by mature people, we would simply omit that statement, recogniziing it for the obituary-speak that it is. However, to accomodate people who don't understand subtlties like this, we may be forced to leave the quote in the article. In that case, we ought to accompany it with some other quotes to give a fuller picture. I suggest something like the following as my second choice for how to edit the article. (My first choice would be to simply omit the silly statement altogether.)

Whitrow in his obituary of Dingle, after describing Dingle's campaign against Einstein's theory, made the conciliatory statement that Dingle never lost his respect for Einstein's genius[ref]Whitrow obit[/ref]. However, this assertion does not appear elsewhere in the literature, and Dingle's own book "Science at the Crossroads" contains numerous statements such as "Would that the revelation would come to [people] that [Einstein's] theory appears to them to be nonsense because it is nonsense and not because they are too stupid to understand it!" and "It appears astonishing that Einstein could have overlooked so simple a fact...".[ref]Dingle, Science at the Crossroads[/ref] So, whether or not Dingle ever lost his respect for Einstein's genius is perhaps an open question.

I don't know... it seems rather obtuse to include such verbiage in the article, simply to accommodate the insistence of one or two editors who insist on include Whitrow's "make-nice" statement. So, I much prefer my first choice (return the article to the way it was), but failing that, I think we must go to a second choice like the words above.Denveron 15:55, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

The statement that Dingle savaged and ridiculed Eddington is not justified. I have read this book and this statement is a false distortion. Please retract it and apologise to the readers of this page. As usual your facts are false.Electrodynamicist 16:18, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

In the make-nice statement toward Eddington in Whitrow's obituary referenced above he characterizes "The Sources of Eddington's Philosophy" by saying that Dingle subjected Eddington's philosophy of science to "devastating criticism", and one of Dingle's later reviews of an Eddington book was greeted with the charge that "the old instinctive antagonism emerges", and Dingle and Eddington exchanged very abrasive letters to the editor over a casual remark of Eddington's to which Dingle took offense, and so on. The antagonism between the two men was very public and quite vitrolic at times. It is true that Dingle also sometimes defended some of Eddington's ideas, or at least stated that other people's criticisms of Eddington were based on misunderstandings of Eddington's positions (unlike Dingle's, of course), and some of this is reflected in "The Sources of Eddington's Philosophy", but the fact remains that Dingle consistently lambasted Eddington and his followers as "modern Aristotlians", and compared them with the scholastic theologians who refused to look through Galileo's telescope for fear of having their pure ideas corrupted by facts. So, I stand uncorrected. Somehow I suspect that if I hadn't provided quotes showing how Dingle savaged and ridiculed Einstein in Science at the Crossroads, you would be claiming that he did no such thing. Speaking of people who refuse to look at the facts for fear of corrupting their pre-conceived notions... Denveron 17:41, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
Your attempt to avoid the fact that your statement above is false by citing additional facts does not remove the fact that your first statement was false. Electrodynamicist 21:30, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
Electrodinges, if you can you prove "the fact that" the "statement above is false" by citing additional facts, then please do so. - DVdm 21:58, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
Denveron, since (alas) I have no access to the full text of "The Sources of Eddington's Philosophy", can you cite a few lines where Dingle labels, like you say, "Eddington and his followers as "modern Aristotlians", and compared them with the scholastic theologians who refused to look through Galileo's telescope for fear of having their pure ideas corrupted by facts"? TIA, DVdm 21:55, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
While waiting for me to get access to my copy of "Sources", here are George Gale's comments on how much respect Dingle expressed toward Eddington's genius in 1937:
Dingle, his stew having finally boiled over, wrote privately to the editor of Nature, first castigating the rampant cosmological ‘mysticism’ passing itself off for science, and then offering to produce an article taking the sword to the mystics themselves. His offer was immediately accepted. The result was Dingle's notorious “Modern Aristotelianism”, a polemical diatribe chiefly against Milne, but aimed as well at Eddington and Dirac on account of their “betrayal” of the scientific method of Newton and his fellow members of the Royal Society. The article is remarkable both for its style and for its content. Dingle's style in the article is vituperative. Thus, emotionally-loaded terms such as “paralysis of reason,” “intoxication of the fancy,” “‘Universe’ mania”, and the like frequently appear, these to be topped only by references to “delusions,” “traitors,” and, of course, “treachery,” each associated with one or more of the guilty parties.
Along with Milne, Dingle indicts Eddington, and, by implication, Dirac, all three of whom, Dingle believes, are guilty of inventing scientific hypotheses by free mental imaginings rather than by strict immersion in observations and observational data...This is what really sticks in Dingle's craw. In turn, Eddington, Milne and Dirac are chastised, each for something slightly different, but at bottom the same, namely, they one and all “appear as a victim of the great ‘Universe’ mania.” In the end, Dingle believes, the danger of this new ‘methodology’ is real, and serious. As he notes in conclusion:
"Nor are we dealing with a mere skin disease which time itself will heal. Such ailments are familiar enough; every age has its delusions and every cause its traitors. But the danger here is radical. Our leaders themselves are bemused, so that treachery can pass unnoticed and even think itself fidelity. It is the noblest minds that are o'erthrown... the very council of the elect can violate its charter and think it is doing science service."
Obviously Dingle is simply wrong; it never occurred to his opponents that hypotheses would not be followed immediately by attempts at deductive prediction of observational consequences. But it was enough, in Dingle's mind, that they didn't use induction, for them to come under blame.
Then we have Whitrow in Dingle's obituary saying Dingle subjects Eddington's philosophy to "devastating criticism", and Martin Johnson's review of "Sources" in which he says "The old instinctive antagonism is there", indicating that he sensed a continuation of the "Modern Aristotelian" attitude from 1937, and Dingle replied that, contrary to Johnson's impression, he actually had a "fundamental sympathy" for Eddington's position, which is what enabled him to see so clearly (and presumably, Dingle being Dingle, to express so vividly) what had "perverted" it.
And all of this over an off-hand comment that really has nothing to do with the article, prompted by Rickert's preposterous claim that I should be chastized for having the temerity to suggest that Dingle was ever anything other than respectful of Eddington's genius. Sheesh.Denveron 02:44, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Denveron - I would be grateful if you stopped deleting quotes from articles printed in highly respected journals, just because they dont agree with your POV - Swanzsteve 03:18, 26 October 2007 (UTC)


The Problem with the Recent Spate of Swanzsteve Edits

The recent Swanzsteve edits are all pure crackpot POV, because he is presenting only half-quotes, omitting in each case the crucial phrase or sentence that conveys that actual content of Dingle's statements. If each read each quote in the original, you will find that Swanzsteve has culled just the words that would give a false impression, and eliminated the words that falsify his crackpot POV. In each case, Dingle says essentially this: Einstein was a genius for dreaming up what seemed to him and some others to be a plausible solution [this is where Swanzsteve stops the quote, but Dingle goes on] but it turned out that Einstein's proposed solution was non-sensical. Dingle talks about the "gold and the clay" of Einstein's thought processes. He says Einstein could see there was something wrong, but didn't have the mentality to find a logically possible solution.

As far as Swanzsteve's other edit, the comment from DVdm does not qualify as a verifiable reputable source, so it does not belong in the article.

To all other editors here, this is where the heavy lifting begins, and we start the long ugly process of simply removing all the spurious crackpot POV nonsense that Swanzsteve can generate. It won't be over quickly, it may takes months or even years. Just have patience.Denveron 04:11, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Denveron - DVdm's comment is the ONLY thing that justifies a second reference to Dingle's retirement. If you remove one you must remove the other.

You can quibble but you cannot deny the glowing Dingle quotes of Einstein's genius.

The Louis Essen quotes put the spurious claim of experimental evidence in context, i.e. there is none.

Its interesting that you call quotes from published books and reputable peer-reviewed journals "crackpot POV" - as I said some time ago you are now the only crackpot on this page.

And once again, stop deleting sourced quotes from reputable journals or you will be reported for vandalism. - Swanzsteve 04:26, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

The quote has to go. The problem isn't sourcing, it's relevance. A quote by fringe theorist A questioning accepted scientific theory X has no place in an article about fringe theorist B opposing theory X. No context is given that Essen's opposition to special relativity had anything to do with Dingle. The sentence also sticks out as disjoint and out of place there. It simply looks like piling on criticism against special relativity. Avoiding crackpot science is one of the canonical reasons to delete sourced content here on Wikipedia. I'm going to remove it and any other fringe science I see here, other than sourced discussion of Dingle's own fringe ideas, as long as nobody threatens to block me.Wikidemo 22:58, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Nature does not publish crackpot science - see below - Swanzsteve 23:33, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Fully support removal of Essen quote for the reasons given. Get rid of it. Tim Shuba 01:16, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Except all the reasons given above are completely bogus - Swanzsteve 23:28, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Another fresh (special purpose?) contributor seems to have had a indirect go at Wikidemo's proposal to remove the Essen ref on the noticeboard. Due to the semiprotection of this talk page, if this user was created today, we'll see him appear here in a few days. DVdm 22:38, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Not need to worry, if he is not anti-Dingle, he will probably be banned within a few more days - Swanzsteve 23:30, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

The Essen quote is not a criticism of SR, it is questioning the validity of the experimental evidence, which is something "proper" scientists are supposed to do. As far as relevance is concerned, the sentence immediately preceding it, says that Dingle was proved wrong by the evidence - how could this quote be any more relevant? Nature might be interested to hear that they publish "crackpot science", their reviewers clearly thought it was a valid comment. As such, its removal is against Wiki policies, by all means remove the factually inaccurate statement that precedes it, then it will have no relevance and should be removed. If Essens quote alone is removed I will lodge a complaint for edit warring. - Swanzsteve 23:36, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Status

Okay. This is ridiculous.

I have blocked both Swanzsteve and Denveron for one day, each. Both seem like single-purpose accounts, as neither has edited anything that does not pertain to Mr Dingle; however, I will be generous, and presume that at least one of the two individuals genuinely has the project's best interests at heart.

I am going to read through this mess of an article history, and TRY to figure out what this very acrimonious dispute is actually about.

I would appreciate it if neither of the two individuals in question edits the article again until such time as we have figured out how to represent the facts in question.

Since there is apparently a conflict of viewpoints, I suggest that both Steve and Ron try to see how the other person wants the article to look, and why. What is the best way to accommodate that viewpoint without compromising the facts? DS 14:06, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

It seems to me that quite a bit of the dispute centers on exactly how to characterize and interpret the core facts of Dingle's rejection of special relativity coupled with a failure to assume good faith by multiple parties.--Isotope23 talk 15:02, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

I would suggest having a look at the Eric Laithwaite page as an example of the balanced manner in which a scientist who has had a disagreement with the establishment on some issue, should be reported. I don't see any overt references claiming that Laithwaite was wrong. I simply read that his views were not accepted by other scientists. Here is a quote from wikipedia,

The scientific establishment, in the form of the Royal Institution, rejected his theory and his lecture was not published by the RI. His feelings on this can be seen in one of the 1974-1975 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures which he presented. In an apparent defence of his position he quoted Freeman Dyson: "Most of the crackpot papers that are submitted to the Physical Review are rejected, not because it is impossible to understand them, but because it is possible. Those that are impossible to understand are usually published." (Freeman Dyson, Innovations in Physics, Scientific American, September 1958)

Despite the lack of interest from other scientists, Laithwaite continued to explore gyroscopic behaviour. Arthur Spool 15:41, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Arthur Spool has been banned as another sockpuppet of Dr Seaweed, how do they work these things out? he doesnt sound like any of the others. As far as I can see, all he has done is complain about the anti-Dingle POV of the article. Is everyone who is not anti-Dingle to be banned? ---Swanzsteve 23:16, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Problem With Current Article, Re Dingle's Respect for Einstein's Genius

The article currently includes a paraphrase of Whitrow obit saying in a conciliatory way that Dingle never lost his respect for Einstein's genius, but the quote that is given to support this statement seems to clearly imply just the opposite, since he says "Einstein's failure to see that it could not be actual when it needed such slight additional thought to make that unmistakably evident, reveals all too clearly the limitations of that genius." And in the same book (as noted earlier) Dingle says that Einstein's theory is "nonsense". Many other quotes can be cited to show the same fact. For example, in his book "Science at the Crossroads" Dingle says "Would that the revelation would come to [people] that [Einstein's] theory appears to them to be nonsense because it is nonsense and not because they are too stupid to understand it!" and "It appears astonishing that Einstein could have overlooked so simple a fact...". It's clear that Dingle's "respect for Einstein's genius" was of a very unique and limited variety. (I hope no one ever "respects my genius" that much. What would he have said about someone who's genius he DIDN'T respect?) Furthermore, this article is not about Einstein, nor is it about Herbert Dingle's personal opinion of Albert Einstein's genius. It is about Herbert Dingle and his scientific views. Let's be honest, the only reason this silly self-contradictory passage about Dingle's personal feelings toward Albert Einstein is in the article is because of the POV of one particular editor. I vote that it be removed. Denveron 04:29, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Denveron, as far as I'm concerned it can be removed. I merely completed the (i.m.o. suspiciously partial) quote by another contributor and added the phrase "on the other hand", to provide some balance.
I also played with the idea of inserting the following quote-completing-sentence by Dingle:
"The genius of Einstein is shown most clearly in his perception of an omission from Newton's system of kinematics that had not previously been noticed and that might, as he saw, provide an opening for a reform that would reconcile the two conflicting branches of physics. In such insight he was pre-eminent in his generation: his weakness, as we shall see, lay in his relative inability to follow up the implications of his insight and in a too great readiness to accept a promising starting-point as an achieved goal. He was rather like one of a body of men imprisoned in a dungeon, who alone perceives an opening offering a means of escape, but omits to verify that it does not lead merely to another part of the dungeon. However, it is Einstein's achievement, not his psychology, that is our concern, and what he perceived was that no one had thought of the necessity of providing some means of determining the time (instant) at which a distant event occurred." (emphasis mine).
but I decided not to include it, in order not to overprovide the balance. DVdm 08:29, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Problem With Latest Swanzsteve Revert

I believe a consensus was reached, that the Essen anti-relativity quote was not appropriate for this article and should be deleted, so I removed it, noting the consensus that had been reached. (See the above comments on this point.) Now I see that, without comment or additional discussion, Swanzsteve has re-reverted it. What can be done about this? Perhaps the passage could be put up for wider comment. Denveron 13:36, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

I just commented on DragonflySixtyseven's talk page. I suggest people hang tight until we can get some admins' involvement. One way or another, I think we can address the situation and allow consensus editing to prevail. Tim Shuba 13:57, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
Tim is correct; take it slow and make absolutely certain you have a strong consensus behind whichever version is going to exist here. I don't even necessarily think you need an admin; file an RFC, establish a strong consensus (i.e. more than the usual contributors and one or two outside editors), and edit from there.--Isotope23 talk 14:04, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
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