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Real or not real, that the question!



On Tuesday, December 10, 2002, Savinainen Antti wrote:

The approach I have tried out
is to start treating forces arising from *interactions*. Force
is defined to be a measure of strength of interaction between
two objects. Interaction is always symmetrical; this is another
way to state Newton's Third Law. ....

My approach is different; the concept of force is introduced
as a "push or pull of any kind" that can be measured or
experienced, at least in principle. A large classroom
force-meter, calibrated in Newtons, is always used during
the introduction. Other nuances come later; they take
nothing away from the initial definition. Is this wrong?

Later we talk about real and fictitious forces; both kinds
are measurable with force-meters, at least in principle.
I do not like the adjectives "real" and "fictitious" but it did
not occur to me that they can be replaced by something
better. Any suggestion?
Ludwik Kowalski