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Re: Nitpicking: gravity is not a force???



The classical forces of nature all obey the same form of force law,
namely,
^F = K ^RM_2M_1/R^3, where ^R is the radius vector between the two
charges M_1 and M_2, and K is a constant that makes the units come out right.
If the charges are electric, K=9x10^9 in SI units. If the "charges" are masses,
the K is Newton's gravitational constant.
This unity of nature is easily introduced along with Newton's 3d law, to
answer the question, "What do we mean by F in the 3d law?" The 3 classical cases
(electricity, magnetism, gravity) exhaust the possibilities.
Regards.
Jack

"I scored the next great triumph for science myself,
to wit, how the milk gets into the cow. Both of us
had marveled over that mystery a long time. We had
followed the cows around for years - that is, in the
daytime - but had never caught them drinking fluid of
that color."
Mark Twain, Extract from Eve's
Autobiography