Re: [Phys-l] The "why" questions

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 11/28/2010 05:00 PM, D.V.N. Sarma wrote:
> The whole of physics was built upon the assumption that
> every effect has a cause and it has come into existence
> as a consequence of this search.

Thank you for sharing that unsubstantiated and exceedingly
implausible opinion.

Let me point out that other people have held a different
opinion, e.g.
   The present does not seem to me to be an opportune time 
   to enter into the investigation of the cause of the 
   acceleration of natural motion, concerning which various 
   philosophers have produced various opinions .... Such 
   fantasies, and others like them, would have to be examined 
   and resolved, with little gain. For the present, it suffices 
   .... to say that in equal times, equal additions of speed 
   are made.
         – Galileo Galilei, 
         Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche intorno à 
         due nuoue scienze Attenenti alla Mecanica & i 
         Movimenti Locali (1638).
         [page 203 of the National Edition]
         [translation by Stillman Drake]

   Hypotheses non fingo.
         – Isaac Newton
         Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
         (2nd edition, 1713).

> The whole of physics was built upon the assumption that
> every effect has a cause and it has come into existence
> as a consequence of this search.

It would have been better to say that the whole of premodern
physics /up to a point 400 years ago/ was built on that assumption.
According to some, including Stillman Drake, Albert Einstein,
and others, /modern/ science began when people stopped using
that approach.

> I know that acceleration occurs only after i put my finger to the body
> and push it. This determines temporal sequence of force and
> acceleration. 

Absolutely not.  As functions of time, F(t) = ma(t).  It is the 
same t.  The law of motion insists that there is no temporal sequence.

For details on this, see
  http://www.av8n.com/physics/causation.htm