Metaphysical Approach to Physics:What they miss out at University

PhysicsRoger J Anderton

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Boscovich is the Father of Modern Atomic Physics. Underlying the physics taught at

University there is a metaphysics based on the idea of point-particles that is omitted. Modern

Physics had a traumatic beginning when Galileo went up against the Inquisition. This

created all sorts of problems. From Newtonian physics was proposed a theory based on

point-particles, this theory was taken up by Father Boscovich and developed into a

complete theory. For a long time after Newton, atomic physics was not put to much in the

way of empirical testing. -2-

The great discoveries in atomic physics came in the 20th Century. But before 20th

Century atomic physics, the metaphysical approach was used to

construct the theoretical description; it is this theoretical description developed from metaphysics that is omitted from most University physics and it leads to

students having an incomplete understanding of the development

of physics ideas.-3-

Conference on Pythagoreanism in 2011 at

http://www.archai.com.br/index.php?option=com_

content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=54-4-

In particular from lecture -- Boscovich is a Pythagorean theory of physics.

Modern mainstream seems prejudiced against such a philosophy.

First 10 minutes of lecture -

A modern approximation to Pythagoreanism: Boscovich's “point atomism”

Edrisi Fernandes (Universidade de Brasília, Brazil)

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points raised -

law to explain everything in nature

material points account for all of nature, obeying attraction and repulsion

Bohr atom – stable electron orbits

Space and time arise out of puncta and are relative

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Newton (1642 – 1727)

starts Newtonian physics

Boscovich (1711 – 1787)

Unified theory of Newtonian Physics

Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Einsteinian physics-7-

After WWII Americans dominated Physics, from where it used to be in Europe (England –

Newton, Einstein- Germany).

American way of doing Physics.

Einstein did Philosophy (metaphysical approach) + Physics but made a mess.

Americans decide to split Physics and Philosophy as two separate disciplines as per

their approach to philosophy.-8-

Einstein approach involving philosophy – said to be his great physical insights due to his intuition,

and steered away from others taking philosophical (metaphysical) approach prior to Einstein.

American approach – Physics for practical uses and don't waste time philosophising about it.

So American approach not allowing fixing the mess in Philosophy+Physics as left by Einstein.

Einstein carried on his unified field theory research as per his philosophical approach, but not deemed of practical use and mostly ignored.

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So what missing out is the understanding behind physics using philosophy that was

being developed in 18th Century around Newtonian physics.

Boscovich was providing a continuation of Newtonian physics to be a unified theory of

point-particles.-10-

Center of mass -11-

18th Century did not have much in the way of doing experiments on Atomic Physics –

Empirical side of Atomic physics in 20th Century.Metaphysical side of physics taken in 18th

Century.Physics is Empirical side + Metaphysical side

(that is simplification, which using as approximation)

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So split in 20th Century American approach to physics was to cut out metaphysical side as much

as possible.

Idea of point-particles comes from Newton

Boscovich extended this idea and looked at consequences to give unified theory.

Metaphysical approach – metaphysical theory.

It was like a blueprint to do the empirical side that was to come later.

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If you had to build a house then you would need to work from a

blueprint.-14-

If build a different house than what is on the blueprint – that does not mean the blueprint is

wrong; it means you built the house wrong. Similarly with Boscovich's blueprint.

So they worked from this blueprint to create 20th Century physics – Einstein gets credited for 20th

Century physics – but he was just a bit confused.

Thus when the Americans came on the scene – it was case of throw away the blueprint – and try to

see how the bits and pieces we have from Einstein fit together.

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So they don't get the picture of how physics theories became what they were in the 20th

Century.

You could say – well let's start again afresh and construct your own personal theory.

And a lot of dissidents do that.Hence why there is hundreds of personal theories

out there.

But that's not really the way it was done – the blueprint was Boscovich's theory.

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So ignoring how it was done is just reinventing the same thing over and over again.

18th Century – most of this stuff was written in Latin – that presents another problem for trying to

understand what happened – its not readily accessible information.

So let's get to the metaphysics -

they decided to build/construct everything we know in physics from point-particles

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You might say hold on a minute – nothing in the world is made up of point-particles, and that idea

is unrealistic

But that is totally irrelevant

We are constructing a mathematical picture of the world – an imaginary world – a metaphysical

world – which we conceive in our minds and then apply to physical reality.

It is not possible to prove it wrong, if it can be constructed correctly mathematically, then

mathematically it is correct-18-

and then its just a question of applying it to physical reality

Popper gave us all the myth of testing theories. But for metaphysical theory that is not the case.

If built from maths that is correct, then it is correct, and just applying it to physical reality as a

description.

You could invent different descriptions. But the way it was done was by Boscovich's blueprint.

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Maths

+1 makes sensepositive numbers make sense

But what of negative number?

We can show +1 stone, +2 stones etc.

But can't show -1 stone.-20-

We thus have an issue of how to apply negative numbers to physical reality

and we have that with all maths – how to apply different parts of maths to physical reality

we can have a negative bank balance where owe more money than we have.

But for objects cannot show a “minus one” stone-21-

Now

+1 x +1 = +1

-1 x -1 = +1

square root of +1 is +1 and -1

but what of square root of -1?

we cannot show square root of -1 stone-22-

We can get bogged down in strange ideas when we do maths and can't seem to get that maths to

match something in physical reality

same with point-particles-23-

point-particles have zero dimensions

2 end points form a line of 1 dimension

2 lines form 2 dimensions

Volume is physical reality. But the others are problematic as to whether they

are part of physical reality. -24-

so we build/construct our physical world from things in metaphysical mathematical world that do

not seem to exist in physical world.-25-

Plato's cave-26-

Now things went wrong with Einstein, so just have to return things to the setting of Newtonian

physics with Boscovich theory -

by Pythagorean tradition – just manipulate the maths the way you want

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Feynman video clip – think some Americans have misunderstandings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZED4gITL28-28-

Mistake pointed out by Feynman is the erroneous thinking of difference between algebra and

arithmetic in that context.

Erroneously - learn by rote of rules they don't understand leads to bad thinking as regards

handling maths -29-

Gravitational light bending-30-

This shows light with speed c [light-speed now to mean in vacuum] passing by sun's gravity with its sphere of influence of radius R, it is acted on by a

gravitational acceleration g. The light is bent through an angle ά .

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Newton's equations of motion are:

v = u + at s = ut + (1/2)at2

v2 = u2 + 2as-33-

with average velocity = (u+v)/2 .: (u+v)/2 = s/t s = [(u+v)/2]t

v = final speed, u = initial speed, t = time taken, a = acceleration, s = displacement

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Downward distance we get as s = [(u+v)/2]t.u = 0, v = gtThus gt^2/2

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tan ά is approximately equal to ά, for small angles . So we have: ά ≈

gt/c/2-36-

ά ≈ gt/c/2

gt/2/ c/2 = gt/c

Now by the Newtonian gravity equation have GMm/R2 = mg, thus we have g = GM/R^2 , and earlier had by 2R = ct that t= 2R/c, so substitute these two equations and

we have:-37-

gt/c = (GM/R2 ) (2R/c) (1/c) = 2 GM/(c2 R)

The angle ά, claimed to be observed by Eddington in 1919 was twice this

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variable light-speed instead of constant light-speed and that means using the equation:

average velocity = (u+v)/2 in the y direction.with v = final light-speed = c, and initial light-speed u =0 i.e. light accelerates from its source to speed

c rather than is emitted at a constant speed c.This gives us (0+c) /2 = c/2

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ά ≈ gt/2c/4

gt/2/c/4 = 2gt/c-41-

2gt/c = 2 (GM/R2 ) (2R/c) (1/c) = 4 GM/(c2 R)

which is the same value for angle ά, as that which Eddington claimed to have observed in 1919.

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result of 1919 observation from Newtonian physics means light has mass and light-speed is

variable

but Einstein constructing from light-speed is constant that leads him to light has no mass and

gravity as space-time curvature

so he is doing a different construction-43-

should really be looking at the experiment and saying what does it mean from Newtonian physics

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From 1919 observation – Newtonian physics tells us light-speed is variable and has mass.

That contradicts special relativity that has light-speed as constant and light as having no mass.

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The prediction from special relativity would be that light does not bend under gravity.

So 1919 observation disproves special relativity.

Or it should have been looked that way, except Einstein updated to general relativity and had gravity as space-time curvature. Under that

scenario special relativity is when there is no gravity.

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Einstein was sneaky in making another change so as to save his special relativity – making it a

special case of his general theory.-47-

One way it can be looked at as ow Einstein constructed special relativity was -

as regards Maxwell theory – Einstein thinks it means light-speed is constant

should really be going by Newtonian physics and saying if Maxwell's equations give constant light

speed then they should be amended accordingly.-48-

video clip Feynman light clock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU04-vJB6gc

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c²t² = v²t² + w²

sot²(c² - v²) = w²

ort²(1 - v²/c²) = w²/c²

and, taking the square root of each side, then doubling to get the round trip time, we get time

dilation-51-.

But the important thing to note is t²(c² - v²) = w²

That is just ordinary way of dealing with velocities as per

Newtonian physics-52-

So its Newtonian physics-53-

Really in the special relativity there is maths from Newtonian physics, wrong steps are made and it

is carried on from there.-54-

And when we look at the issue of whether to change Newtonian physics OR Maxwell's theory.

Well Newtonian physics is starting from definition of physical quantities such as for momentum

F = dp/dt.

But Einstein decides to start changing all these defined terms.

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Einstein was doing things round the wrong way. He should have been starting from the defined

terms in Newtonian physics and amending Maxwell theory to conform to those definitions.

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Einstein constructing from light-speed is constant that leads him to light has no mass and gravity as space-time curvature – there was no need for any

of it

If looked at 1919 observation as it should have been looked at by Newtonian physics then it

meant light had mass, and light-speed (in vacuum) was variable.

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Thus the Maths returned back into Newtonian physics after Einstein's detour.

i.e. Back to Boscovich's theory.-58-

Why aren't we taught this at school?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvdmISdytXg

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Single pointedness oneness

At 7.30

Ancient understanding

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Too much mystical stuff associated with it, and too much a prejudice of our society against allowing that as part of science.

Hence the establishment prefer to dumb science down and exclude it, and hence lose a lot of the understanding through the thinking behind how science became what it is today.

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Boscovich was looking at this ancient wisdom.

So what we have is the Copernican revolution which was a recovery of ancient wisdom from before the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic geocentric physics. (Pythagorean philosophy had the

earth as another planet in motion.) But then when partially recovered, mainstream wanted

to exclude as much as possible about its metaphysical/mystical side and pretend

science is something else.-62-

If have time want to do - Whig History

And Martinez on Einstein myths.

-else that's all folks.-63-