As I’ve noted several times, the physics of the observer takes duration as the dependent variable and measures the corresponding length or other variable. This fits well with the finding that gravity is an approximately constant acceleration, g, which equals 9.81 m/s². What is gravity in the context of an independently chosen distance and dependent […]
Now that the U.S. is politically polarized, it is reversing polarity. The liberals are the new conservatives. The conservatives are the new liberals. The Democrats are the new Republicans. The Republicans are the new Democrats. Let me explain. In the past, the liberals were pushing for change, promoting equality, and seeking a better future. The
The Sun is like a clock. Sun and sundial (click for animation) Hours correspond to the Sun’s motion. 24-hour clock (for animation click here) This 24-hour clock is a representation of looking south. The sun rises on the left and sets on the right. At noon the sun and the clock appear straight up.
I’ve written about the inverse perspectives of travelers and shippers versus observers and scientists here. This post focuses on the language used, primarily the expectation of what motions larger or smaller values of measures correspond to. For an observer we’re accustomed to larger values corresponding to faster, more powerful motions. But travelers are usually trying
As with a previous post here, this post looks at George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Philosophy in the Flesh (1999). This time the focus is on what they call “folk theories” but I’m calling classical knowledge since these have become so ingrained in Western thought. Starting with chapter 16 they look principles that came out
Vic Scaravilli is a Catholic who put the following on his website here. I’m reposting it (with permission) and note that Evangelicals would agree that this is the gospel, with some nuances about baptism. The Basic Gospel Message By Vic Scaravilli God loves each one of us. He loves me and He loves you with
This post builds on the post Physics for travelers. Passengers are travelers or riders with a specific destination. In a way passengers are passive; they just sit as a vehicle takes them where they want to go. But that comes after they entered the vehicle, which comes after they accepted a ride or bought a
This post continues other posts (see here and here) on the relevance of Aristotle’s four causal factors. Call the higher causes the final and formal causes, and the lower causes the efficient (mechanistic) and material causes. Aristotle argued that the upper causes are more important. Early scientists argued that we couldn’t know them regarding nature
Good soldier Schweik was a character invented by Czech author Jaroslav Hašek in the 1920s: Through (possibly feigned) idiocy or incompetence [Schweik] repeatedly manages to frustrate military authority and expose its stupidity in a form of passive resistance: the reader is left unclear, however, as to whether [he] is genuinely incompetent, or acting quite deliberately
This continues a previous post on Occam’s razor, which it was pointed out is a principle that is arbitrary and biased. With what should it be replaced? Every science has at least two schools of thought. These reflect well-known tendencies to ascribe more significance to one of two contrary explanatory factors. For example, there are
