[Phys-L] Re: Energy is primary and fundamental???

[jbellina at SAINTMARYS.EDU (jbellina)]

I gather you are writing that to be real you must directly experience
it without the use of instruments...so a smack in the nose is real.
What then about Africa, or a hallucination...something you alone
experience.  Are electrons real, or atoms?

real is tough,

joe
On Aug 11, 2005, at 12:55 AM, Jim Green wrote:

> I find myself wondering what has come over the list.  Do we really
> want to
> debate whether the fellow who smacks you on the nose has applied a
> "force"?  If there is anything real in his galaxy, that is real.
>
> But "energy"???  For Pete's sake energy is an invention!  It certainly
> isn't "primary and fundamental"  We wander around saying that "light"
> is
> photons or maybe waves or maybe a beam.  Also inventions.  Yes photons
> got
> Einstein a prize, but they are not "real"  All these  concepts are
> useful
> -- They help us solve some practical problems.-- but they are not real.
>
> If we try to teach that they are "primary and fundamental,"  we do our
> students a great disservice..
>
> Jim
>
>
> Jim Green
> mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
> http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen
Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556