| Explanation |
- Physics is about explaining a mechanism
It was in the 17th Century when individuals such as Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Rene Descartes,
Christiaan Huygens, Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton, and Gottfried Leibniz began the so-called 'Scientific'
Revolution. They began to question the traditional Greek schools of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and
ushered in the modern version of science. Most of these were mathematically-inclined individuals and
applied Mathematics to the problems they researched in the course of their investigations . They were
seeking to discover the numerical 'laws' the Universe obeys, and most of them probably believed that
those perfect laws were dictated by God Almighty Himself. Much of what came later, including
Romanticism and Positivism, was a detour into politics and empiricism (i.e., technology). The spiritualists
took over the reigns of 'science' and placed Man and conscience again at center stage. But ever since
the 17th Century the genie could not be put back into the lamp. Math became central to 'physics' and
'science' and a sine qua non ingredient. A paper or argument or theory that did not have an equation
behind it was not regarded as scientific.
But an equation is only a description. Math can only describe. Math is entirely a language designed to
describe and nothing more. Math has no power or authority to explain causes and mechanisms. And
this is the underlying reason that we have no explanations for simple, every day phenomena such as
the attraction between two magnets or what causes a pen to fall to the floor rather than to the ceiling.
- Here we make a sudden 180° left hand turn and sweep all of Mathematics, including every equation ever
devised and every textbook ever written on the subject, and dump them into the ash heap of history. We
propose a major paradigm shift: Math has nothing at all to do with Physics or with Science! Anyone using
an equation or numbers to make his case is not doing Science. And hopefully this declaration upsets your
intuition, your notion of 'science', the way you were educated and brought up, and gets you to think...
No. I'm not kidding. Math is not only NOT the language of Physics, but it has nothing at all to do with
Science. And this declaration was overdue and necessary. It was necessary because here we are in the
21st Century and not one Mathematician or 'scientist' on Earth can rationally explain common phenomena
mediated by invisible entities (e.g., light, gravity, atomic and subatomic behavior, magnetism, electricity,
black holes, dark matter, etc.) Not one 'scientist' on Earth can explain the invisible mechanisms that
Mother Nature uses to bring two magnets together or prevent the Moon from leaving the Solar System.
To make matters worse, most mathematicians give lip service to the differences between descriptions and
explanations, but most of them define one in terms of the other. In other words, not one mathematician on
Earth has any clue what the difference is between a description and an explanation. When push comes to
shove, a mathematician will ultimately argue that these two words are synonyms. He never really thought
about them or discussed the words in any depth in his entire stay in college.
Take for instance, the widespread claim that you find in just about every YouTube video on magnetism.
The proponent claims to 'explain' how magnets work...
1. MAGNETS: How Do They Work?
- "Magnetic objects are able to magically attract at long distances because they generate
magnetic fields that extend invisibly out the end of the object. But the mystery is this.
Where do magnetic fields come from?
Electrons have... an intrinsic property called... intrinsic magnetic moment. But really that's
technical mumbo jumbo saying that particles with electric charge also happen to be tiny
magnets. If you want to know why they're tiny magnets, well you may as well ask, Why
are particles charged in the first place? Or why do objects with mass and energy attract
each other gravitationally? NO ONE KNOWS!"
"One magnet either repels or attracts another and nobody knows why... except you... after
watching today's video. One way to understand magnets is through magnetic domains...
Magnetized iron has all the domains aligned... that is... it has a north side and a south side
and that orientation is what it allows it to become a magnet... All magnetism is caused by
electrons... Electrons have a property called spin... that is, the electron was spinning as it
circled the nucleus. It is the alignment of the electron spins that results in the magnetic
properties of iron... iron, nickel, and cobalt have an unusual double valence in which their
two valence electrons are paired with parallel spins. In summary, a magnet is a collection
of microscopic crystal domains that have their electron spins aligned."
- "A magnet is any object that has a magnetic field... The end of a freely pivoted magnet will
always point in the North-South direction. The end that points in the North is called the North
Pole of the magnet and the end that points South is called the South Pole of the magnet. It
has been proven by experiments that like magnetic poles repel each other whereas unlike
poles attract each other...
What is a magnetic field? The space surrounding a magnet, in which magnetic force is exerted,
is called a magnetic field... When a small north magnetic pole is placed in the magnetic field
created by a magnet, it will experience a force."
- "Magnets are objects that produce magnetic fields and attract metals like iron, nickel and
cobalt. The magnetic field's lines of force exit the magnet from its north pole and enter its
south pole... In magnets... most or all of the magnetic domains point in the same direction.
The more domains point in the same direction, the stronger the overall field. Each domain's
magnetic field extends from its north pole into the south pole of the domain ahead of it. This...
explains why opposite poles attract -- the field lines leave the north pole of one magnet and
naturally enter the south pole of another, essentially creating one larger magnet. Like poles
repel each other because their lines of force are traveling in opposite directions, clashing
with each other rather than moving together."
And then we have the fine print and corollary...
“…these lines are not physical lines that are actually present at certain locations; they are
merely visualization tools… field lines are a ‘mere’ mathematical construction”
- field lines, Wikipedia
- “These lines, called MAGNETIC LINES OF FORCE, do not actually exist but are imaginary
lines used to illustrate and describe the pattern of the magnetic field.”
- D. Jones, Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series (1998) Page 1-20
- So we have all these abstract, mathematical, imaginary lines of force traveling and clashing, but they
don't exist... My God!
What all these IGNORAMUSES do is crowd the airwaves with their babble. All they did in their presentations
is DESCRIBE that north attracts south or that the domains are aligned or that electrons spin in the same
direction.
So? How does the fact that two DISCRETE electron beads spin the same direction produce attraction at
a distance?
The first ignoramus said it like it is: "NO ONE (in Quantum and in Mathematical 'physics') KNOWS!"
And the fact that the first two videos have so many hits and likes shows that over 90% of the people out
there have no clue whatsoever what an explanation is or what they watched or what they understood. All
rational people would have and should have disliked the videos on the basis that they amount to false
advertising. The videos did not EXPLAIN the mechanism of attraction at a distance.
.
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Bill's books
Mr. Banks: Would you be good enough
to explain all this?
Mary Poppins: First of all, I would like to
make one thing quite clear...
Mr. Banks: Yes...
Mary Poppins: I never explain anything!
to explain all this?
Mary Poppins: First of all, I would like to
make one thing quite clear...
Mr. Banks: Yes...
Mary Poppins: I never explain anything!
Unfortunately, because these ignoramuses crowd the airwaves, the overwhelming majority of people never get
so see the only video that provides a MECHANISM for how a magnet attracts another from a distance. The
lonely vid gets relegated to a needle in a haystack. This doesn't mean that you must believe the theory. You
are supposed to UNDERSTAND the mechanism. Whether you accept this explanation is immaterial. That's
merely your personal bias, your private religion. Science is about explaining and understanding, not about
describing mathematically or otherwise. Anyone can describe what the magician did on stage. Not everyone
can explain how he did the trick.
- explanation:
1. The causes (Physics) or reasons (Philosophy) underlying a phenomenon.
- 2. The prosecutor’s version of how (Physics) or why (Philosphy) a consummated
event happened.
3. To theorize
to explain: To externalize or disclose the manner in which an individual believes a
consummated event occurred.
(Synonyms.: mechanism, cause, reason, motive, theory, why, how, interpretation,
justification, clarification, understanding, rendition, meaning, significance, movie,
representation, exposition, comprehension, grasp)
An explanation deals exclusively with the past.
Science explains. Science does not describe! Science only deals with consummated events.
| So, dear mathematician? How does the fact that electrons spin in the same direction produce attraction between them? What is the physical mechanism? |
