Re: Big Bang Baloney....or scientific cult?

From: Mike Helland (mhelland_at_techmocracy.net)
Date: 07/22/04 

Date: 22 Jul 2004 07:48:30 -0700

"Bill Hobba" <bhobba@rubbish.net.au> wrote in message news:<fmELc.10676$K53.7415@news-server.bigpond.net.au>...

> To do physics you only need a very simple philosophy saying things
> like time is what clocks read or space not endowed with a coordinate system
> is not much use etc. Such is not satisfying to a philosopher but all you
> need to do physics.

I think you need to be careful here. What does it mean "to do
physics"? This is not a casual remark, I'll explain.

If you mean by doing physics the act of making calculations based on
known axioms and formulas, you are right.

But simply doing calculuations is not all there is to physics. Physics
is a science, and thus, science demands that its axioms be challenged
and refined.

If doing physics ignores that its axioms be challenged and refined,
you are correct, but the great many of science (Einstein, Heisenberg,
ect.) would argue that following the established axioms of physical
laws is not the same as doing physics.

I hope this helps. 

--
Mike Helland
http://www.techmocracy.net/science/time.htm

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Lightspeed exceeded
    ... all sets of axioms are treated more or less on an equal ... >axioms that yields the largest number of accurate predictions in as ... I am referring to the rules which physics sets itself. ... Tom Roberts for example stated that SR predicts the null result of the MMX. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Lightspeed exceeded
    ... physics if you did not believe the theoretical basis for what you were ... all sets of axioms are treated more or less on an equal ... produce a testable set of predictions, then yes, you can chuck it on ... sensible axioms of physics. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Lightspeed exceeded
    ... all sets of axioms are treated more or less on an equal ... If you throw them all away it is no longer a science. ... I am referring to the rules which physics sets itself. ... If I am on a battlefield the mathematics will show that if a gun is pointed in a certain direction with a certain elevation a shell will come close enough to me to kill me. ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Skolems Paradox and why is math the way it is?
    ... > |interpretation takes anything seriously at all. ... but at least one of my physics professors in college ... > about the safety of using set theory. ... Since we haven't proven that ALL the set theory axioms taken together ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Skolems Paradox and why is math the way it is?
    ... >>are only asking for the position of one particle. ... describing the location of his pen as it moves over his lab book will ... Thank you for telling me your opinion about the ZF axioms. ... *help* to remove them from math first and *then* from physics. ...
    (sci.math)