Re: [Phys-l] About the "why" and "how" questions.

[William Robertson <wrobert9@ix.netcom.com>]

Exactly. You can keep asking why until the answer is, "It happens  
because it happens." Beyond that is the province of religion. I don't  
have a problem with explaining "why" things happen when teaching  
physics, because that's the common terminology. I do, however, go out  
of my way from time to time to explain that we are answering "why" in  
terms of scientific models and concepts.

Bill



On Dec 23, 2010, at 9:30 PM, Hugh Haskell wrote:

> At 21:35 -0500 12/23/2010, ludwik kowalski wrote:
> > On Dec 23, 2010, at 8:59 PM, ludwik kowalski wrote:
> >
> > > Bob Zannelli wrote: "In an absolute sense the why question may have
> > > no answer."
> > >
> > > Not when we agree that "why X" is the same as "what caused X."  For
> > > example, "why was an explosion in my microwaves owen today?"
> >
> > And here is a more familiar illustration. Why is a terminal velocity
> > reached by a parachute? Because of the "air resistance." What is
> > wrong with this answer in a physics class?
> Nothing's wrong with it, as far as it goes. From the philosophical
> POV, however, it isn't the end of the line. There are a whole string
> of further "why" questions that one could ask--"Why does air have
> 'resistance'?" "Why do the molecules of air impede the fall of the
> object?". . . and so on, until one comes to the "ultimate" question,
> in which case the answer must be of the nature "Because that's the
> way nature works," or something like that.
>
> We frequently use "how" and "why" in a more or less synonymous way,
> but they are, philosopically different words with different meanings,
> and that becomes most evident when we reach the end of the chain--the
> point where there is no satisfying answer to the "why" question.
>
> And even that is a moving target. As science progresses, we get to
> push the ultimate question back, a layer at a time. But we can never
> get rid of it--only put more intervening questions into the picture.
>
> Hugh
> --
>
> Hugh Haskell
> mailto:hugh@ieer.org
> mailto:haskellh@verizon.net
>
> It isn't easy being green.
>
> 		--Kermit Lagrenouille
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