Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'On Motion', 'Farewell to Reality: fairytale physics' and 'Sense Data and the Percept Theory'

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5 ideas

12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 4. Sense Data / d. Sense-data problems

6493	We are not conscious of pure liquidity, but of the liquidity of water [Firth]
	Full Idea: We are not conscious of liquidity, coldness, and solidity, but of the liquidity of water, the coldness of ice, and the solidity of rocks.
	From: Roderick Firth (Sense Data and the Percept Theory [1949]), quoted by Howard Robinson - Perception 1.7
	A reaction: A nice point, but it might not be entirely true in a blindfold test, where one might only report properties like 'sticky' or 'warm', without having any clear concept of the substance being experienced. Firth is proposing the 'percept theory'.

27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 1. Relativity / a. Special relativity

12709	Motion is not absolute, but consists in relation [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: In reality motion is not something absolute, but consists in relation.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Motion [1677], A6.4.1968), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 3
	A reaction: It is often thought that motion being relative was invented by Einstein, but Leibniz wholeheartedly embraced 'Galilean relativity', and refused to even consider any absolute concept of motion. Acceleration is a bit trickier than velocity.

27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 2. Electrodynamics / b. Fields

21731	Fields can be 'scalar', or 'vector', or 'tensor', or 'spinor' [Baggott]
	Full Idea: Fields can be 'scalar', with no particular direction (pointing, but not pushing or pulling); or 'vector', with a direction (like magnetism, or Newtonian gravity); or 'tensor' (needing further parameters); or 'spinor' (depending on spin orientation).
	From: Jim Baggott (Farewell to Reality: fairytale physics [2013], 2 'Quantum')
	A reaction: [compressed] So the question is, why do they differ? What is it in the nature of each field the result in a distinctive directional feature?

21730	A 'field' is a property with a magnitude, distributed across all of space and time [Baggott]
	Full Idea: A 'field' is defined in terms of the magnitude of some physical property distributed over every point in time and space.
	From: Jim Baggott (Farewell to Reality: fairytale physics [2013], 2 'Quantum')
	A reaction: If it involves a 'property', normal usage entails that there is some entity which possesses the property. So what's the entity? Eh? Eh? You don't know! Disappointed...

27. Natural Reality / B. Modern Physics / 4. Standard Model / b. Standard model

21732	The current standard model requires 61 particles [Baggott]
	Full Idea: The current model requires 61 particles: three generations of two leptons and two flavours of quark, in three different colours (making 24); the anti-particles of all of these (48); 12 force particles (photon, W1, Z0, 8 gluons), and a Higgs boson.
	From: Jim Baggott (Farewell to Reality: fairytale physics [2013], 6 n)