Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

[Phys-l] The "why" questions



REPOSTING BECAUSE THE MESSAGE WAS PROBABLY LOST

John Denker wrote:

"... If you insist on asking "why" then the laws of physics are always going to lead you around the chicken-and-egg circle. The laws of physics need to say what happens. They sometimes say how it happens. The fundamental laws rarely if ever say why it happens. ... The slightly different question 'how do we know' will get a lot more traction. ..."

Thank you for another interesting observation. But the "why" questions are often asked by students, and by most people. And teachers answer them, without difficulties. For example:

*) Why do cars gain speed when moving downhill ? Because of the net force. And we elaborate.

*) Why do we have day in New York when it is night in Tokio? Because of the earth rotation. And we elaborate.

*) The shape of the moon changes from day to day. Why is it so?... etc. etc.

This is unavoidable.


Thinking about this again I realized that both scientific and deistic terms are embeded in human languages. Actually, it is more than terms. It is the idea of causality. The question "why" is equivalent to "what is the cause" of this or that. We believe that natural events are interrelated; this is usually called the cause-and-effect principle (or idea). A particular egg came from a particular hen and a particular hen came from a particular egg. The well known general question--“what comes first ...--” makes no sense. Do you agree? Why should it force us to stop asking the “why” questions?

Ludwik

http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/life/intro.html