[lit-ideas] How The Laws of Physics Lie
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 19 May 2010 18:35:18 EDT
--- They don't, McEvoy argues.
In a message dated 5/19/2010 3:02:11 P.M., donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx
writes:
If you don't believe gravity is "an ontological category" [philosophers'
code for "something that exists"] try flying without mechanical aid [as Bill
Hicks pointed out it is safest to try this not from jumping from a great
height but from the ground].
----
Surely it is conventional to have d2 here:
m1 X m2
g = -------------
d2
--- This is Newton's convention. He could have written 'd3' (the cube of
the distance that separates them') and so on. The way he defined 'gravity' is
SO conventional that it may hurt.
Bill Hicks is possbibly right about 'grave' (things are grave), but
'gravity' itself, being a feminine abstract noun, does not exist. Only grave
things exist, notably apples -- in Lincolnshire (*)
J. L. Speranza
--- for Bordighera
(* Newton invented the law of gravity when an apple fell as he was napping
outside a church in Lincolnshire. He refused to report to the Royal Society
on the grounds that it was not Anglican enough -- gravity.)
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