Neil, no test can prove that which cannot be true. The controversy has as its source not anything that needs to be tested, but a logical precept that is so fundamental to any sort of coherent thought, that it can't be denied. I've thrown the word "geometry" around in these discussions quite a bit, but the problem arises before any math begins. That's why we're so certain (hard headed if you like) of our position.
Despite the snail's pace, I still hope to put a new coat of paint on the argument.
Jim
There's your first problem- you ASSUME that it can't be true because it doesn't fit the equations in your mind of what must be true. You fail to even consider the fact that it just might be true, but you don't have the proper info to prove it.
Where you fail in trying to put it in 2D on paper is in discounting how vision actually works. Hold your finger up and look at an object in the distance lined up with your finger. Now close one eye. The object shifts. Now open that eye and close the other eye, the object shifted again. Now open both eyes, now the object shifted again to in the middle of where it was.
Now, put down on 2D paper what really happened. You can't. You can put what you saw, but that shifting isn't really reality, is it? The object never really moved. Now, I'm not saying that is exactly what happens with CTE, it's not. However, there are great similarities, in that you can reliably do things with your vision that "just aren't supposed to be". Yet, they happen. Something similar happens with CTE, while it's not supposed to work on paper, yet it does perfectly due to how our vision actually works.
Now, you can argue this all day long, and all it will do is ensure that your mind will never accept what it "sees" and you will therefore ensure that you will never be able to use CTE. In doing that, what have you now gained? But, on the other hand, if you just accept that you don't know exactly how it works, then your mind is free to "allow" it to work, and then you have a very reliable aiming system that works for you at all angles withing the parameters of the system.
Purely your choice on which way to go- fight it and have nothing from it, or accept it just might be possible, be open to it, and then have something that really helps your game.