Yer cannae change the laws of physics, Jim!
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
well, this is true. think of it this way: the universe works the way it does and it's true everywhere the universe works. but the real question is, do we know the law of physics? you can tell it an other way: the law of mathematic don't change. but does our description of the universe is mathematically accurate?
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station.... _________________________________________________________ My programs never have bugs, they just develop random features.
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These are assumptions made in order to allow physics to proceed. Otherwise if the laws of physics were different in different places then abservations we make of things such as the motion of stars and of light become meaningless. It's essentially wishful thinking based on gut feelings backed by reasonable common sense. However recent work has shown that things such as the speed of light may actually have changed over time, leading the possibility that the laws may change over time, may be different in different places, or may simply be beyond what we can currently grasp. Physics is phrustrating.
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
this a communication problem. maybe the speed of light change, mybe this or that change. but the law of physics don't! it's just what we know of them which does!
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station.... _________________________________________________________ My programs never have bugs, they just develop random features.
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
These are simplifying assumptions - an application of Occam's Razor. However, any phycisist worth his salt would love to find that the laws of physics change over very large distances or over large time scales. Physics would become difficult, scarey but VERY interesting. Would this be any different than giving the kiss of life to Schrodinger's cat?
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Rich Leyshon wrote:
- The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe
We have no reason the believe otherwise.
Rich Leyshon wrote:
- The laws of physics do not change
My belief is that they do not. However, there are many special cases where established and accepted theories/laws are proven inadequate.
Rich Leyshon wrote:
Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions?
This really hits at the heart of Special and General Relativity and why Einstein wanted to call it the "Theory of Invariance." I could go on at length because I used to teach Special and General Relativity and love the topics. One could say that the Einstein's entire opus was built upon absolutism and that he dreaded the term "Theory of Relativity." Do a google search on "Theory of Invariance + Einstein" and see what people much smarter than me have written about it.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
Chris Austin wrote:
here are many special cases where established and accepted theories/laws are proven inadequate
Aren't most of those cases 'incapable of predicting', versus 'contradictory results'? Plank scale / uncertainty / divide by zero kinds of issues?
Silver member by constant and unflinching longevity.
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
Interesting article I just stumbled across today on this subject: http://www.reasons.org/tnrtb/2008/06/11/better-clocks-constants-still-constant/[^]
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
as einstein put it - god isn't playing dice. 1. universe is running under definite laws. 2. we know them in part. it is our limitation not of laws. 3. they seem to change only when our understanding changes (maybe improves). 4. there is no variation in laws is in iteself a proof.
manoj sharma 09313603665 manoj.great@yahoo.com
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Interesting article I just stumbled across today on this subject: http://www.reasons.org/tnrtb/2008/06/11/better-clocks-constants-still-constant/[^]
I'll be ..... I just threw out my physics, astronomy and cosmology library and bought a bunch of bibles! And everyone: the Universe was not created by the Big Bing. It took just 7 days for everything to be created and all started on 23rd October 4004BC. I wonder if they had all necessary development permits! "Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close. " - Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World.
No trees were killed in the creation of this message. However, many electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
Rich Leyshon wrote:
Yer cannae change the laws of physics, Jim!
See the problem with this statement is that although it is attempting to effect a Scottish accent it is in fact written using the rules of a non-rhotic accent which the majority of the English speaking world does not use, including Scotland. ;P Just thought you'd like to know. :-D
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
1. The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe If you have an apple falling from a tree, you would be able to calculate the time it reaches earth by using Newton's famous equation. However, if the tree is sank under the water the equation would seem wrong. That's because we didn't considered all the other forces present, or, the equation was not complex enough (e.g. for the case we need to consider the relativistic effects). Generally, there is always a broader context that covers all facts, so you will be able to precisely calculate the apple falling under the water. The statement "The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe." would be equivalent to "All that is, is what it is", which would be true. 2. The laws of physics do not change This is acctually the same question as the first. ...so they both are true :)
Alex C. D.
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
Of course the laws of Physics vary - ask any politian! Actually 'laws’ is sort of a misnomer, they are not laws, they are actually observations/interpretations made on how things interact. Once you look at them from that perspective there should be no surprises if they do alter or that we have got it completely wrong. After all Newtonian physics once explained most things .... (except for the price of apples). Even if we do get to a unified theory of everything, how can we be sure that it’s only another view point! Even with a proven unified theory, it still begs the ultimate question how did these laws come to be, probably a question that can never be answered. Even those in the Religious domain come up against similar theological problems, except they can leave it to their chosen God to ponder such questions!
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But the beer is flat. Not to mention the women.
The laws can change, our perception (and interpretation) of them can change, the world can change, but the actual physics stay the same. There may be laws that need amending or as yet haven't been written as in all legal matters.
The tragedy of your times is that you may get exactly what you want!
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Newtonian and Maxwellian mechanics don't work so well on small particles, like electrons. Quantum Mechanics doesn't work so well in the macro world we perceive with our senses. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle works well with small particles like electrons, but has no meaning when we are talking about a futbol. When you speak of the laws of physics, it usually depends on the size of the universe you are considering. We don't really have a unified theory that explains all things. The holy grail being the unified force theory. So, to answer your question, Newtonian laws apply to a futbol (or baseball), but Quantum physics applies to the atoms that make up the matter in the ball. And nuclear physics will hurt your head. Nuclear physics and Microsoft(R) Vista(R) should be avoided in order to have a nice day.
CodeWiz51 -- Life is not a spectator sport. I came to play. Code's Musings | Code's Articles
Good answer. Newtonian mechanics concentrates on the things that most people can see or do everyday. For example, if you play pool or snooker you should use Newtonian mechanics to work out where to hit balls with the cue ball to get them in the pockets. But Newtonian mechanics starts to break down at extremes. For the extremely small, quantum mechanics comes into play. If you start going fast, that's very fast (ie, you travel in a space rocket, not a fast car), start using Einstein's theories of relativity (also used for nuclear bombs, E = mc^2). If you go very big, ie, look at the cosmos - galaxies and the universe, then you start going into other theories, like string theory that models the universe as 11 or more dimensions. So, do the laws of physics change? No. But, they do break down at the extremes and new theories are written, tested, proved or disproved.
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
And not forgetting things like: Inflation - which requires the speed of light to have been very much higher during the very early universe (within about 10E-12s of the big bang), or for general relativity to have not held then.
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Newtonian and Maxwellian mechanics don't work so well on small particles, like electrons. Quantum Mechanics doesn't work so well in the macro world we perceive with our senses. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle works well with small particles like electrons, but has no meaning when we are talking about a futbol. When you speak of the laws of physics, it usually depends on the size of the universe you are considering. We don't really have a unified theory that explains all things. The holy grail being the unified force theory. So, to answer your question, Newtonian laws apply to a futbol (or baseball), but Quantum physics applies to the atoms that make up the matter in the ball. And nuclear physics will hurt your head. Nuclear physics and Microsoft(R) Vista(R) should be avoided in order to have a nice day.
CodeWiz51 -- Life is not a spectator sport. I came to play. Code's Musings | Code's Articles
I just thinks it's all relative... Hee, Hee :-D Actually I try to not be too certain about anything. The only things I have seen that are constant are: 1. Change - everything in this reality changes continually 2. Humans resist change more that anything else - we are the Universal Yang to the Cosmic Ying. Everything else is up for debate. That is not to invite anarchy, but to recognize that existence in this reality is dynamic, always in flux and that balance & harmony are moving targets. They have to be, because lack of any movement or flux is stagnation; stagnation is lifeless.
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I'll be ..... I just threw out my physics, astronomy and cosmology library and bought a bunch of bibles! And everyone: the Universe was not created by the Big Bing. It took just 7 days for everything to be created and all started on 23rd October 4004BC. I wonder if they had all necessary development permits! "Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close. " - Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World.
No trees were killed in the creation of this message. However, many electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
iangrech wrote:
I'll be ..... I just threw out my physics, astronomy and cosmology library and bought a bunch of bibles! And everyone: the Universe was not created by the Big Bing.
There was a theory that Bing Crosby created the universe?
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Back in the days when I went to school, when the world was black and white and young ragamuffins spent their days acquiring soot stains from their travels up and down chimneys, I was taught the following: 1) The laws of physics are the same, everywhere in the universe 2) The laws of physics do not change Does anyone have any proof of either of these statements or are they assumptions? Rich
Easy by definition: In physics, if it changes with the location or over time, it is not a law. :D
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
blog: TDD - the Aha! | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Easy by definition: In physics, if it changes with the location or over time, it is not a law. :D
We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
blog: TDD - the Aha! | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighistUnless of course the law states that there will be a change, and in turn can define the change in mathematical terms...