Nitpicking: gravity is not a force???

[George Spagna <gspagna@rmc.edu>]

At 01:45 PM 8/8/98 -0400, Sam Held wrote:
> Mervin,
> 	I do not think it is wrong to say that Gravity, EM, weak, and
> strong are forces.

I agree - though it's also necessary to get students to make the connection
that "force" is a construct which we use to explain our observations.
Beyond the intuitive meaning of "force = push or pull" everything else may
be mere language, including the mathematics.


>  However, it is very hard to try to introduce the
> concepts of fields, potentials, and forces correctly due to the rigorous
> mathematics involved. 

In detail, yes.  But the notion of a field is still another construct, one
used to hide our discomfort with action at a distance.  It still describes
the observations, and so may be considered a linguistic device at a certain
level.


George Spagna           **********************************************
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