A comment on Solari and Natiello’s constructivist view of Newton’s mechanics. (English) Zbl 1513.70001
Summary: The present comment on H. G. Solari and M. A. Natiello’s paper [“A constructivista view of Newton’s mechanics”, ibid. 24, No. 2, 307–341 (2019; doi:10.1007/s10699-018-9573-z0)] values their constructivist approach to Newtonian Mechanics. My critical point concerns only the link between the concept of force and phenomena. It will be shown that the idealised form of the law of inertia created by the authors avoids criticism of the law and that this law (idealised or not) leads to the concept of force as the cause of acceleration. This concept appears in the authors’ reconstruction as an assumption. They add that this assumption must be contrasted with experiments. Following this, I address an experiment, in which the force that is taken as the cause of acceleration, is not present in the phenomenon at stake. As it thus does not satisfy the property of locality, which any cause has to, force cannot be a cause.
MSC:
| 70A05 | Axiomatics, foundations |
References:
| [1] | Alonso, M.; Finn, EJ, Physics (1992), Wokingham: Addison-Wesley, Wokingham |
| [2] | Atwood, G., A treatise on rectilinear motion and rotation of bodies: With description of original experiments relative to the subject (1784), Cambridge: Merril and Deighton, Cambridge |
| [3] | Becker, RA, Introduction to theoretical mechanics (1954), New York: McGraw-Hill, New York · Zbl 0059.17003 |
| [4] | Bergmann, L.; Schaefer, C., Lehrbuch der Experimentalphysik (1998), Berlin: de Gruyter, Berlin |
| [5] | Bigelow, J.; Ellis, B.; Pargetter, R., Forces, Philosophy of Science, 55, 614-630 (1988) |
| [6] | Budó, A., Theoretische Mechanik (1974), Berlin: VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin |
| [7] | Bueche, FJ; Jerde, D., Principles of physics (1995), New York: McGraw-Hill, New York |
| [8] | Cartwright, N., How the laws of physics lie? (1983), Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford |
| [9] | Coelho, RL, On the deduction of Newton’s second law, Acta Mechanica, 229, 2287-2290 (2018) · Zbl 1390.74010 |
| [10] | Ellis, B., The existence of forces, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 7, 171-185 (1976) · Zbl 0339.01007 |
| [11] | French, AP, Newtonian mechanics (1971), New York: W. W. Norton, New York · Zbl 0241.70001 |
| [12] | Gerthsen, C., Physik (2006), Berlin: Springer, Berlin · Zbl 0125.11904 |
| [13] | Halliday, D.; Resnick, R.; Walker, J., Fundamentals of physics (1993), New York: Wiley, New York |
| [14] | Hamel, G., Elementare mechanik (1912), Leipzig: Teubner, Leipzig · JFM 43.0764.01 |
| [15] | Hanson, N., The law of inertia: A philosopher’s touchstone, Philosophy of Science, 30, 107-121 (1963) |
| [16] | Hestenes, D., New foundations for classical mechanics (republished) (1987), Dordrecht: D. Reidel, Dordrecht |
| [17] | Hicks, MT; Schaffer, J., Derivative properties in fundamental laws, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 68, 411-450 (2017) |
| [18] | Jacobi, C. (1996). In H. Pulte (Ed.), Vorlesungen über analytische Mechanik Berlin 1847/48, Braunschweig, Vieweg. · Zbl 0867.01051 |
| [19] | Knudsen, JM; Hjorth, PG, Elements of Newtonian mechanics (1996), Berlin: Springer, Berlin · Zbl 0856.70003 |
| [20] | Kuypers, F., Klassische mechanik (2012), Weinheim: Wiley, Weinheim |
| [21] | Lange, L., Ueber die Wissenschaftliche Fassung des Galilei’schen Beharrungsgesetzes, Philosophische Studien, 2, 266-297 (1885) · JFM 16.0798.02 |
| [22] | Lange, L., Das inertialsystem vor dem Forum der Naturforschung, Philosophische Studien, 20, 1-71 (1902) · JFM 33.0080.03 |
| [23] | Lenard, P., Deutsche physik (1936), Muenchen: Lehmanns, Muenchen |
| [24] | Ludwig, G., Einführung in die Grundlagen der Theoretischen Physik (1985), Braunschweig: Vieweg, Braunschweig |
| [25] | Mach, E., Die Geschichte und die Wurzel des Satzes von der Erhaltung der Arbeit (reprint, 1909) (1872), Lepizig: Barth, Lepizig · JFM 04.0558.06 |
| [26] | Massin, O., The composition of forces, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 68, 805-846 (2017) |
| [27] | Nagel, E., Structure of science: Problems in the logic of scientific explanation (1961), New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, New York |
| [28] | Nauenberg, M., Comment on Is Newton’s second law really Newton’s? By Bruce Pourciau, American Journal of Physics, 80, 931-933 (2012) |
| [29] | Neumann, C., Ueber die Principien der Galilei-Newtonschen Theorie (1870), Leipzig: Teubner, Leipzig · JFM 02.0039.03 |
| [30] | Newton, I. (1999). The principia (I. Bernard Cohen & A. Whitman, Trans.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. · Zbl 0961.01034 |
| [31] | Nielsen, J. (1935). Vorlesungen über elementare Mechanik (W. Fenchel, Trans.). Berlin: Springer. · JFM 61.1465.01 |
| [32] | Nolting, W., Grundkurs: Theoretische Physik (2005), Braunschweig: Vieweg, Braunschweig · Zbl 1066.00006 |
| [33] | Norton, JD, Causation as folk science, Philosophers’ Imprint, 3, 4, 1-22 (2003) |
| [34] | Pisano, R.; Capecchi, D., Conceptual and mathematical structures of mechanical science between 18th and 19th centuries, Almagest, 2, 4, 86-121 (2013) |
| [35] | Planck, M., Einführung in die Allgemeine Mechanik (1916), Leipzig: S Hirzel, Leipzig · JFM 46.1145.02 |
| [36] | Pourciau, B., Newton‘s interpretation of Newton‘s second law, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 60, 157-207 (2006) · Zbl 1123.01013 |
| [37] | Riemann, B. (1876). Bernhard Riemann’s gesammelte mathematische Werke und wissenschaftlicher Nachlass. Unter Mitwirkung von R. Dedekind hg. von H. Weber. Leipzig: Teubner. · JFM 08.0231.03 |
| [38] | Russell, B., Principles of mathematics (1937), London: Allen & Unwin, London · JFM 63.0819.01 |
| [39] | Scobel, W.; Lindström, G.; Langkau, R., Mechanik, Fluiddynamik und Wärmelehre (2002), Berlin: Springer, Berlin |
| [40] | Serway, R.; Jewett, JW, Physics for scientists and engineers (2004), Belmont, CA: Thomson, Belmont, CA |
| [41] | Solari, HG; Natiello, MA, A constructivista view of Newton’s mechanics, Foundations of Science, 24, 307-341 (2019) |
| [42] | Sommerfeld, A., Vorlesungen über Theoretische Physik (1947), Leipzig: Geest & Portig, Leipzig · Zbl 0035.12401 |
| [43] | Stachel, J.; Ashtekar, A., Development of the concepts of space, time and space-time from Newton to Einstein, 100 years of relativity/space-time structure: Einstein and beyond, 3-36 (2005), Singapore: World Scientific, Singapore · Zbl 1104.83011 |
| [44] | Truesdell, C., A program toward rediscovering the rational mechanics of the age of reason, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 1, 3-36 (1960) · Zbl 0096.00301 |
| [45] | Wilczek, F., Whence the force of F = ma? I: Culture shock, Physics Today, 57, 11-12 (2004) |
| [46] | Wilson, A., Dispositions-manifestations and reference-frames, Dialectica, 63, 591-601 (2009) |
| [47] | Wilson, J., The causal argument against component forces, Dialectica, 63, 525-554 (2009) |
| [48] | Wilson, M.; Batterman, R., What is ‘classical mechanics’ anyway?, The Oxford handbook of philosophy of physics, 43-106 (2013), Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford |
| [49] | Young, H.; Freedman, R., Sears and Zemansky’s University physics (2004), San Francisco: P. Addison-Wesley, San Francisco |
This reference list is based on information provided by the publisher or from digital mathematics libraries. Its items are heuristically matched to zbMATH identifiers and may contain data conversion errors. In some cases that data have been complemented/enhanced by data from zbMATH Open. This attempts to reflect the references listed in the original paper as accurately as possible without claiming completeness or a perfect matching.
