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The [[Cockcroft and Walton Experiment|Cockcroft/Walton experiment]] is an example of this kind of acceptance.  The results are consistent (to within 5% when analyzed carefully) with Special Relativity, and many people consider it to be a validation of SR.  But there were too many other things going on, such as the use of the newly-invented particle accelerator, to make it a definitive test.  Assumptions have to be made about what is happening in the experiment in order to assert anything about [[E=mc2]].  See [[Cockcroft and Walton Experiment]].

The [[Cockcroft and Walton Experiment|Cockcroft/Walton experiment]] is an example of this kind of acceptance.  The results are consistent (to within 5% when analyzed carefully) with Special Relativity, and many people consider it to be a validation of SR.  But there were too many other things going on, such as the use of the newly-invented particle accelerator, to make it a definitive test.  Assumptions have to be made about what is happening in the experiment in order to assert anything about [[E=mc2]].  See [[Cockcroft and Walton Experiment]].

The anomalous behavior of the timing signals from [[GPS]] satellites is another example.  The phenomenon is well known—the system compensates for this; otherwise it wouldn't work—and the phenomenon is known to be a consequence of both special and general relativity.  But the GPS system should not be considered and experiment to test relativity.  No sensible person would build the GPS system as a test of relativity, if only because it exhibits two phenomena (time dilation of special relativity, 7 milliseconds per day, and time compression of general relativity, 45 milliseconds per day) that work against each other.  No one would design and experiment that tests two phenomena working against each other.  But the effect of both, 38 milliseconds per day, is well known, as is the reason for this.  There are no known alternative theories, published in the scientific literature or listed in [[Counterexamples to Relativity]], explaining this result.

The anomalous behavior of the timing signals from [[GPS]] satellites is another example.  The phenomenon is well known—the system compensates for this; otherwise it wouldn't work—and the phenomenon is known to be a consequence of both special and general relativity.  But the GPS system should not be considered and experiment to test relativity.  No sensible person would build the GPS system as a test of relativity, if only because it exhibits two phenomena (time dilation of special relativity, 7 milliseconds per day, and time compression of general relativity, 45 milliseconds per day) that work against each other.  No one would design an experiment that tests two phenomena working against each other.  Newtonian physics also predicts the bending of light and might be fit to the observed GPS data as relativists do.

While the experimental tests for General Relativity are rather esoteric, those for Special Relativity are fairly straightforward.  So much so that the Michelson-Morley experiment could be said to have single-handedly established the case for SR—the logical syllogism leading from Michelson-Morley to SR and the Lorentz transform was fairly clear once people saw it.

While the experimental tests for General Relativity are rather esoteric, those for Special Relativity are fairly straightforward.  So much so that the Michelson-Morley experiment could be said to have single-handedly established the case for SR—the logical syllogism leading from Michelson-Morley to SR and the Lorentz transform was fairly clear once people saw it.