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Re: Physics is a human construct



It is explicit in Plato and in others following that pure reason is the
source of true knowledge and that the senses deceive. If the data of
experience disagree with the perfect theory attainable by reason, then
the senses are to be DIStrusted. Thus the increasing complexity of the
Ptolemaic model as the centuries went on, since it was based on Plato's
axiom that the heavenly bodies could only move in the perfect path --
the circle (or compounded from circles).

What was so radical about Kepler was that once he saw that Tycho's
improved observations disagreed with the model, even by a small amount,
he was willing to consider giving up the model altogether. He then set
out to construct, geometrically, point by point, the planetary orbits
direct from the obsevations. Observations that were of course taken from
an Earth moving in a path that was itself unknown.

It was a truly staggering achievement, in my opinion one of the greatest
(and most underrated) in the history of science. If you are not familiar
with the construction, see if you can figure out even roughly how the
process would work. He did assume that the sun was stationary.

Jerry Epstein