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] |
... . The acid test, then, for a
*real* force is "Does it cause deviation from local inertial motion?" If
it does it is a force; if it doesn't it is not a force. And this holds in
both Newtonian and Einsteinian physics.
Given your defining acid test above for a force everything you have been
saying seems to be consistent. I just don't choose to use this criterion
to define what I mean by a force. According to your definition of force
frame generated influences on the motion of a body in a given reference
frame cannot be called forces, and hence you call them fictious. Only
interaction-generated forces pass your (very low pH) acid test. My, much
weaker, test for a force is that if, in a given frame, it mathematically
functions as a force as far as its role in the equations of motion and in
its relationship to various integrals of the motion (action, Lagrangian,
Hamiltonian, etc.), then it is a force regardless the mechanism of its
ultimate generation (physical interaction or frame acceleration). I prefer
the duck test to an acid test.
David Bowman
dbowman@gtc.georgetown.ky.us