Re: Whence Degeneracy Pressure?

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

        I emphatically withdraw from this kind of discussion.  A
definititon is a definition is a definiton, and its only purpose is to
make discussion possible.  You don't like my definition, well, then, give
me yours and I'll answer your question using that one.
        As I said, it is always possible to make an argument on any side
of any given question.  I will add that the most unproductive arguments
are those about definitions -they rank slightly below arguments about
religion.
        Someone suggested that we teach logic to our students.  Great
idea, but let's start with the teachers.
                                        Regards,
                                                Jack

On Sun, 27 Jan 2002, Chris Horton wrote:

> Why would we decide that something is a force based on whether it can be
> made to correspond to a force term in the Hamiltonian?  Isn't that allowing
> our mathematical formalism to dictate how we see reality?
>
> If the gravitational force is causing atoms in a degenerate gas to press
> downward toward the center of a star, and if the exclusion principle gives
> our best explanation of what is opposing that collapse, and if our formalism
> denies us the ability to describe this as a force, do we then describe this
> situation as non-Newtonian?  By what right do we do so?
>
> Chris, who has been uneasy for years about the relationship of the exclusion
> principle to the force laws.
>
> *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *
>
> Christopher A. Horton, Ph.D.
> 4158 RR#3 (Hwy. 204)
> Amherst, NS B4H 3Y1
> CANADA
> ChrisAHorton2@hotmail.com
> (902) 447-2109
>
> *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
>
> "Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us
> will have been effaced.  Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has
> in it something for every age to investigate ... Nature does not reveal her
> mysteries once and for all."
> - Seneca, "Natural Questions", first century, quoted by Carl Sagan in
> "Cosmos", p.xi.
>
> *    *    *    *    *    *     *    *    *    *    *
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>
> To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2002 5:28 PM
> Subject: Re: Whence Degeneracy Pressure?
>
>
> > On Sun, 27 Jan 2002, John Mallinckrodt wrote:
> >
> > > A sophisticated layperson friend of mine asked me a question which
> > > I had to confess had never really occurred to me before.  I told
> > > him I'd consult a prestigious panel of friends.  So here goes:
> > >
> > > Why should the Pauli principle *not* be considered itself to be
> > > the equivalent of a "fifth force"?
> >
> >
> > Suppose I pinch your finger with a pair of pliers which are made of
> > solid neutronium...
> >
> >
> > (((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
> > William J. Beaty                            SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
> > billb@eskimo.com                            http://amasci.com
> > EE/programmer/sci-exhibits   science projects, tesla, weird science
> > Seattle, WA  206-789-0775    sciclub-list freenrg-L vortex-L webhead-L

--
"But as much as I love and respect you, I will beat you and I will kill
you, because that is what I must do.  Tonight it is only you and me, fish.
It is your strength against my intelligence.  It is a veritable potpourri
of metaphor, every nuance of which is fraught with meaning."
                     Greg Nagan from "The Old Man and the Sea" in
                     <The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>