Posted by DStahl on November 10, 2001:

In Reply to: Re: So. Massergies are subatomic. Quarks? Leptons? posted by Alan7Marshall on November 07, 2001:

Alan--

Good! Now, with your magnet observation, we're getting to something actually measurable at home! The only bar magnets I've rustled up so far are from a cheesy science kit of my son's, and they're so weak it's pathetic. Maybe I can get some better ones today. The interaction you're talking about is too complex for the simple Gaussian equation, I think, so it's probably beyond my math skills. That's OK, we can do it experimentally and come up with a qualitative idea of what's going on even if it's not quantitatively precise.

Incidentally, I find your comparison of Newman to Einstein quite as odious as you find my references to Newman. Einstein, as I have already mentioned, had already published some very serious and influential papers before he published the special theory of relativity. His paper on the photoelectric effect helped set the stage for quantum mechanics. And relativity was most assuredly not "just an idea in Einstein's head" until it was tested: almost immediately upon its publication it was recognized by physicists as a very serious and potentially very useful piece of work. Long before the expedition to observe the eclipse relativity was an idea actively working in many physicists' heads. Newman has never, as far as I know, published a paper in a physics journal explaining his theory in any sort of intelligible terms, let alone in a way that demonstrates that it is as serious and useful as Einstein's formulation of relativity.

Newman seems heroic to you, but please be aware that I do not share your opinion and I find the idea of comparing him to the great physicists quite repugnant.