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Single Idea 13548

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / c. Forces ]

Full Idea

The waves increase by degrees, approaching to the hour and day proportionately larger or smaller in volume as they are attracted by the star we call the moon, whose power controls the ocean's surge.

Gist of Idea

The ocean changes in volume in proportion to the attraction of the moon

Source

Seneca the Younger (On Providence [c.60], §1)

Book Ref

Seneca: 'Dialogues and Essays', ed/tr. Davie,John [Penguin 2007], p.4


A Reaction

....just in case anyone thought that Isaac Newton had invented gravity.


The 25 ideas with the same theme [attractions and repulsions in physical nature]:

The ocean changes in volume in proportion to the attraction of the moon [Seneca]
'Force' is the quantity of movement imposed on something [Hobbes]
Newton's idea of force acting over a long distance was very strange [Heisenberg on Newton]
Newton introduced forces other than by contact [Newton, by Papineau]
Newton's laws cover the effects of forces, but not their causes [Newton, by Papineau]
Newton's forces were accused of being the scholastics' real qualities [Pasnau on Newton]
I am studying the quantities and mathematics of forces, not their species or qualities [Newton]
The aim is to discover forces from motions, and use forces to demonstrate other phenomena [Newton]
Boyle and Locke suspect forces of being occult [Locke, by Alexander,P]
An insurmountable force in a body keeps our hands apart when we handle it [Locke]
Some people return to scholastic mysterious qualities, disguising them as 'forces' [Leibniz]
Power is passive force, which is mass, and active force, which is entelechy or form [Leibniz]
All qualities of bodies reduce to forces [Leibniz]
It is plausible to think substances contain the same immanent force seen in our free will [Leibniz]
We need the metaphysical notion of force to explain mechanics, and not just extended mass [Leibniz]
Motion alone is relative, but force is real, and establishes its subject [Leibniz]
The force behind motion is like a soul, with its own laws of continual change [Leibniz]
Force in substance makes state follow state, and ensures the very existence of substance [Leibniz]
Clearly, force is that from which action follows, when unimpeded [Leibniz]
Leibniz uses 'force' to mean both activity and potential [Leibniz]
Force is supposed to cause acceleration, but acceleration is a mathematical fiction [Russell]
I deny forces as entities that intervene in causation, but are not themselves causal [Ellis]
By 'force' I mean the sources of all actions - sometimes called 'powers' by their outcomes [Breheny]
The strong force has a considerably greater range than the weak force [Martin,BR]
Relativity and Quantum theory give very different accounts of forces [Hesketh]