Modest:
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One might be tempted to say that magnetic field lines are not real and not physical but are rather something like a map and therefore magnetic field lines must be straight (they cannot be curved). This is analogous to saying the spacetime manifold is not real and not physical but is itself a map and therefore it must be straight and uncurved (i.e. space and time cannot be curved)...
As I've previously said, that line of reasoning does not seem sound to me.
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I would not be so tempted. Magnetic fields are obviously curved. The Earth's... a bar magnet's... solar flairs... the aurora borealis. We can see the curvature as expressed by iron filings on paper over a magnet... or in the display of ionized gases near the poles.
As above... you usually totally misunderstand what i am saying. Your example above was a totally false representation of my "line of reasoning."
Like the curved path of light around masses, the curved force field of magnetism does not establish "The Curvature of Space." It is a "fabricated medium"... only a model... unlike magnetic force fields and curved light paths.
Amazingly enough, straight lines, however "geometric" are still straight lines... both on paper and through space...
And the "objective distance" (however much you hate that phrase!) "through space" between two objects (or points on paper) is still a straight line... not the light path by which we 'see" objects.
. Would you please step aside and let this thread progress without your distortions of what I am saying here??
Pyrotex: "I love the analogy between "time" and "ley lines".
Modest:: "I like it too. I think it was originally brought up in post #137:"
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Originally Posted by modest View Post
Think of the magnetic field lines a person could draw around a magnet. The field lines are not real physical things. But, that doesn't mean electromagnetism isn't a real physical thing. It doesn't mean that Maxwell's theory of the electromagnetic field is wrong.
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Your magnet example completely misses my point... as usual. (as per my above comments.)
A brief exercise in logic...
Assertion: "Time is what clocks measure." (Implication: If clocks measure "it" then "it" must be "real" (as an entity of some kind.)
Assertion: "Ley lines are what specially designed dowsing rods measure." (Implication: If dowsing rods measure "it" then "it" must be real (as a real Earth Force of some kind.)
Your curved magnetic field doesn't even approach the ontological debunking of 'time as established by clocks' presented above.
The sorry truth as I see it is that you have no idea what I just said!
Michael
