Gravity Probe B and Our 4-Dimensional World: Does Time Stand Still?

[Descartz2000]

Do the Gravity Probe B results provided by NASA from 2011 support and lean in favor of a 4-dimensional everyday world? The world you and I live in. Do the results argue for block time?

 

[Dale]

Do the Gravity Probe B results provided by NASA from 2011 support and lean in favor of a 4-dimensional everyday world? The world you and I live in. Do the results argue for block time?

The results are consistent with GR to a rather low level of accuracy. I think that is about all you can say.

 

[bcrowell]

There's a great anecdote from a Tom Stoppard play:

George: Meeting a friend in a corridor, Wittgenstein said: 'Tell me, why do people always say it was natural for men to assume that the sun went round the Earth rather than that the Earth was rotating?' His friend said, 'Well, obviously, because it just looks as if the sun is going round the earth.' To which the philosopher replied, 'Well, what would it have looked like if it had looked as if the Earth was rotating?'

Do the Gravity Probe B results provided by NASA from 2011 support and lean in favor of a 4-dimensional everyday world? The world you and I live in.

To make your question meaningful, you'd have to define what you thought the world would be like if it was *not* four-dimensional. Newtonian mechanics can be described in terms of a 4-dimensional world.

Do the results argue for block time?

The block universe is a philosophical idea, not a testable scientific theory. The block universe picture has been discussed many, many times on PF, e.g., https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=643851 .