Question

3) Why was the observation of starlight bending around the sun, during the 1919 solar eclipse, taken as confirming evidence for the general theory of relativity? How was it taken as disconfirming evidence for Newtonian physics? (Dewitt, Chap. 4) 4) How is this related to the Quine-Duhem Thesis? (Chap. 5)

Answer 1

Bending of star light around the sun shows that heavy objects the space time to bend and due to that bending of curvature of space time light travels around curved path in distorted region enables visualization star that is behind the sun. This experimental proof proved Einstein's general theory of special relatively and disconfirming Newton theory of gravity which says that gravity is only attractive force. This also confirms that is it impossible to test a scientific hypothesis in isolation, because an empirical test of the hypothesis assumptions . That is what done in experiment to prove Einstein theory.