Knowing

epistemology, science, kinds of knowledge, methodology

Modes and measures

What is the “distance” between two point events? That would include the length in both space and time. The measurement of the length of time between events depends on the mode of travel between them. For example, the time between leaving one’s residence and arriving at work depends on how one commutes. If the trip […]

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Combining history and science

In 18th century the sciences started to become more prestigious and influential than the humanities. In the 19th century this led to a realignment of modern thought and society as scientists (a new term then) took the dominant position within the universities and high culture – in the place of clerics, philosophers, jurists, historians, poets,

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Problems in mechanics, part 2

How practical is the mechanics of time-space? It’s at least as practical as the mechanics of space-time and in some case is easier to understand or more appropriate. This post continues a series to illustrate this based on the website Physics: Problems and Solutions, Kinematics. Problem 2.1 Is it possible that a vehicle could relentate†

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On the unique and the uniform

This continues posts on history and science (see here). Uniformity is the background for history: what everyday life is like, what is constant in a culture. But history focuses on what is unusual or unique because that is the key to differences between people and places and periods. It is the unusual or unique that

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Naturalism and uniformity

I posted a series of selections from Matthew Stanley’s recent book here. This post is about an article he wrote: “The Uniformity of Natural Laws in Victorian Britain: Naturalism, Theism, and Scientific Practice” (Zygon, vol. 46, no. 3, Sept. 2011, pp.536-560). His conclusion in the article is similar to the book: the practice of naturalistic

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Measurement by motion

Traditional expressions and units are often associated with motions. For example, English farmers used the distance and area of land that their animals could plow for units of measure: A furlong was the length of a plowed furrow, i.e. furrow-long. An acre was the area that could normally be plowed by an ox in a

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6D as two times 4D

Although the six dimensional space-time invariant interval represents space and time, we do not observe it as 6D. Instead, we observe space and time as 4D in one of two ways. The full 6D space-time interval expressed in spatial units is: s² = Δr² – c²Δw² = Δr1² + Δr2² + Δr3² – c²Δw1² –

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Transformations for one or two directions

A bidirectional transformation applies to all observers, and so must work for any direction, including observer and observed with the roles switched. A physics for all observers should be bidirectional if possible. This works for mechanics but for thermodynamics entropy is inherently directional. The Galilean transformation is for one direction with no characteristic (modal) rate.

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Travel time and temporal displacement

There’s a basic distinction between the travel distance (or flight length) and the displacement. There should be a corresponding distinction between the travel time (or flight time) and the temporal displacement – which I’ll call the dischronment (dis-time-ment vs. dis-place-ment). The travel time is the total duration of the trip, and the travel distance is

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