Re: CAUSATION IN PHYSICS

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 09:37 AM 10/16/00 -0500, Rick Tarara wrote:
> It dawned on me this morning that one point of confusion here may well be
> the 'World View' of the participants. ...
> For those with a firm Newtonian view, it is evident that forces
> cause accelerations and not the other way around. ...
> With a more 'modern' world view, it is perfectly natural to put
> ourselves INSIDE the accelerated frame.....

That's an imaginative hypothesis, but it does not describe (let alone
resolve) any of the confusion I've been seeing.

In particular, consider the statements:
1a)     you can't have F without ma, and
1b)     you can't have ma without F.
2)      The relationship between F and ma is symmetric;  it is
        properly called "equality" not "causation".
3)      If you want to stretch the definition of causation
        to the point where F "causes" ma, then by this stretched
        definition ma "causes" F also.

Remarks:
*) Those statements hold in Newtonian reference frames, such as the
ordinary terrestrial classroom frame.
*) They also hold in free-falling reference frames.
*) Those statements refer to the force ON an object and the acceleration OF
the same object -- not to the acceleration of the reference frame.