Science vs ignorance
Other Voices
Iremember very well, when we were young, a terrible degree of panic set in, when the world was unfair to us as a result of a partial eclipse of the sun and low temperatures.
And it would have become more terrifying if the phenomenon was accompanied by strong winds. All this fear was quite visible in the eyes and on the faces of the elderly. Everyone rushed to the mosques to pray in the belief the Day of Resurrection was at hand.
All this ‘ignorance’ vanished as science cleared the blindness from our eyes and now it has become just a phenomenon we spend money to watch, rather than fearing and running to places of worship to prevent this evil and praying for its demise.
Last week (on Aug 21), we witnessed a total solar eclipse, the sight of which was enjoyed by many. The last time this phenomenon occurred was almost 100 years ago and we will not see a total solar eclipse until 2024. Until then, the Muslims will fight and differ and insult each other and not trust others when it comes to sighting the Ramadan moon.
Returning to the May 29, 1919 eclipse, which lasted for six minutes and could be seen from northern Brazil to the Principe in Guinea, it was like a scientific phenomenon.
The English physicist Arthur Eddington persuaded the British government to fund his attempt to prove the validity of the theory of ‘gravity’ which was previously written in 1915 by a young German Jewish scholar named Albert Einstein, who stated that matter and energy actually mold the shape of space and the flow of time. Gravity is simply the sensation of following the shortest path we can through curved, four-dimensional space-time. It is a radical vision: space is no longer the box the universe comes in; instead, space and time, matter and energy are and proved space is locked together in the most intimate embrace. He said if a star is close to the sun, its light will curve affected by the gravity of the sun.
The next complete eclipse was an opportunity for Eddington to ascertain the validity of Einstein’s theory, but the British government gave the credit to the German, its arch-enemy, as well as the proof of the theory as an infringement or a modification of the theories of the English scientist Isaac Newton! But Eddington walked out of his project; the opportunity did not come again.
When darkness fell and the sun was silhouetted by the moon, stars appeared in the ‘midday’ sky. Eddington identified a specific star, usually hidden behind the sun. But since the gravity of the sun was ‘bent’, the star could be seen, as if in a different location, as Einstein had fully predicted, and therefore the accuracy of his words.
In addition, the phenomenon of total eclipse enabled scientists to see the sun’s corona, and considered it a scientific discovery. The corona is the outer part that continues to glow after the moon silhouettes the middle and largest part of the sun disk, which cannot be seen without the total eclipse. The sun’s plexus is millions of times brighter and shiny than its boundary or outer corona.
It is only during the eclipse, that the outer sphere of the sun can be seen and define the extension of the corona and recognize its influence on us.
It can be said that the German Einstein in his theory of relativity overthrew, or modified, the theories of Isaac Newton, the greatest world renowned scientist the mankind has ever known. However, that was the beginning of Einstein’s fame, thanks in part to Eddington’s insistence.
For hundreds of years all the beauty of the scientific West is battling, and the grandeur of the treacherous mute Park!
email: habibi.enta1@gmail.com