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Re: [Phys-l] force +- momentum flow



Bernard Cleyet worried about:

... confusing them w/ reifications.

Students are not confused by this. There is no reason why they should
be. For that matter, there is no reason why anybody should be confused
by this.

I quote from
http://www.av8n.com/physics/reality-reductionism.htm

The reductionist viewpoint is sometimes useful but sometimes not. Whether
the reductionists like it or not, the wave has properties that transcend
its embodiment in a particular medium. Over on one side of the room the
wave is a bunch of rope-particles moving up and down. Then it propagates
over to the other side of the room and becomes a bunch of chain-particles
moving up and down. But still we recognize it as the same wave. The wave
is the same, even though the medium has changed completely.

The non-extreme view accepts that the rope is embodied in the rope or chain
... but it is also a wave.

You can take the reductionist viewpoint if and when you like. But you would
be tragically limiting yourself if that were the only viewpoint you were able
to take. And it would be quite unwise and unkind to ask other folks to adopt
such narrow views.

For the rest of the story, see
http://www.av8n.com/physics/reality-reductionism.htm