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William Beaty wrote:What is substance?
I've encountered people who think that electric current is "real", and
that electric charge is just an abstract concept. Very weird. (The flow
rate of a substance is more real than the substance which flows?!!!)
I'm probably getting in over my head here, (and I'm praying that someone
more highly informed and articulate will snatch up my banner and carry
it victorious to the finish line) but I am compelled to object to the
19th century characterization of electrical charge as a "substance". Is
not electrical charge a *property* of the elementary particles which
make up what we call substance, the quarks and leptons and bosons, etc?
To me, calling charge a substance is like insisting that blue is a
substance, or foul-smelling is a substance or strangeness is a
substance. How have I erred in my conceptualization of the sub-atomic
structure of the Universe?
Best wishes,
Larry