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Force Sensors Must Measure Acceleration??



On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, brian whatcott wrote:

At 05:30 PM 4/8/97, A. R. Marlow wrote:

[Joel Rauber ??]
2) I've never seen a force sensor yet that doesn't work by first measuring
acceleration.
...

Is there a consensus on this list on the validity of this statement? It
has been made repeatedly before, and as far as I recall, without
challenge. I would really like to know, because if there is a consensus
in its favor, further discussion of the matter is rather pointless.

A. R. Marlow

Is there anyone who believes that basic concepts are best settled
by concensus? This amounts to the 'Democratic Theory of Science'.
Though Marlow were the only one with a particular view, he could be
the only one not mistaken.
One point in Marlow's favor: Joel (?) mentions a time sequence of events,
i.e. a cause and an effect.
This does not endear his argument to me for this reason alone.

Regards
brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK


You are right, of course, in holding that consensus cannot determine
"objective scientific truth," but it can determine the evolution of
the scientific terminology we use in attempting to describe reality.
I am serious in my desire to get a poll of the PHYS-L list on the
question "Does measurement of force require measurement of acceleration?"
So that this will not interfere with other threads, I have changed the
SUBJECT line above so that only those interested in responding to this
particular question need reply. Taking this list as a representative
sample of physics teaching today, if there is a consensus in favor of
the proposition, then I will have to concede that the language of
physics has changed, and dynamics is no longer distinguished
linguistically from kinematics -- i. e., today's physicists equate
acceleration with force. I personally would regard this evolution as
a tremendous loss of precision in language, but que sera sera.

A. R. Marlow E-MAIL: marlow@beta.loyno.edu
Department of Physics, Box 124 PHONE: (504) 865 3647 (Office)
Loyola University 865 2245 (Home)
New Orleans, LA 70118 FAX: (504) 865 2453