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Old 11-25-2008, 07:17 PM   #14
Olorin
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Join Date: May 27, 2002
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Age: 49
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Default Re: e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein proven right

Consider the cannonball.

When cannons were first invented, the prevailing theory was that the natural state of the cannonball was rest. Therefore, when a cannonball was shot into the air, something had to be pushing it to keep it moving forward.

Theory: Nature abhors a vacuum. Since the cannonball will leave a vacuum in its wake, air will rush in to fill the vacuum and propel the cannonball forward.

The theory was eventually replaced by Galileo and Newton: Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. The cannonball will continue at the same speed, though it will be pulled downward by gravity and slowed (slightly) by air resistance.

Now just because early cannons relied on nature's abhorrence of a vacuum rather than inertia to hit their target didn't make them any less destructive.

Things work the same way whether we have the proper theory to explain them or not.
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"Many are my names in many countries. Mithrandir among the Elves, Tharkun to the Dwarves; Olorin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the South Incanus, in the North Gandalf; to the East I go not"

--The Two Towers
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