------------ ORIGINAL MESSAGE ------------(may be snipped)
On Wed, 16 Nov 2016 22:16:50 -0700, you wrote:
>So the bottom line is that we shouldn't be troubled by abstract ideas like
>electric current. Most everything we know about the world is an abstraction of
>some sort. Instead, we should be grateful that the universe, despite its
>enormous complexity and subtlety, allows us to simplify its rules into
>stripped down descriptions that our small brains can understand and that let
>us do useful things, like build vacuum tubes.
>
>73,
>
>Jim W8ZR
REPLY:
My main objection to "modern" physics is in the quote above.
Physicists have a bad habit of using mathematics to describe the real
world. They build a mathematical model of it and after a while they
come to think the model is the real thing. It isn't, any more than a
marble statue is a real human being. They get fixated on the math and
lose sight of what is real. Einstein's description of gravity as a
"distorting of space" is typical. Gravity is simply a force which is
poorly understood, not a distortion of anything.
Another classic example is the Big Bang Theory. When it was first
proposed the word "Theory" was always included. After a number of
years, "Theory" was dropped and it became just the "Big Bang", as if
it had been proven. It has not, except as a mathematical model but
that doesn't stop a lot of people as accepting it as proven fact.
One of the great failings of the human race is the willingness to
accept a plausible explanation for something that may or man not be
true and can not be proven.
Mathematics is useful, but it is only a model, not the real thing.
73, Bill W6WRT
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