Vestibular Apparatus and Causality

[inet@intellisys.net (brian whatcott)]

At 09:14 AM 4/5/97 -0800, Leigh Palmer wrote:
> ...
> In Canada we teach our students that acceleration is a vector quantity.
> Inside my middle ears I have two accelerometers that, when they are
> working, reinforce that impression.

I hope that Canadian children go on to hear about the 8 acceleration sensors
 that the average person is endowed with:

Each ear: the vestibular apparatus consisting of
three semicircular canals stimulated by head rotation about each axis,
and the utricle which responds to static position in space (gravitation pull) 
...and to linear acceleration (Gernandt, 1959)
in Foundations of Physiological Psychology,  R.Thomson, Harper Row  P. 418.
 Perhaps you had the utricles in mind?

> It appears to me that all of us understand what the correct answer to
> the question at hand is. Why is anyone quibbling? Does anyone honestly
> disbelieve the (local) principle of equivalence?
>
> Leigh
Possibly nit-picking again: "correct answers" lie in the realm of arithmetic;
the physical sciences deal more often with provisional explanations,
 much to our discomfort.
Locality, causality and equivalence are subject to revision as time goes by.
 And that's one reason why assigning 'causes' and 'effects' can go wrong too....

(Offered in the spirit of a little intellectual perambulation)

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK