Philosophy Explorer wrote: โSun Apr 29, 2018 2:40 pm
uwot wrote: โSun Apr 29, 2018 2:05 pmSo what's your analysis of the Feynman clip?
He talks about a number of things. Said two things can appear to be different even though the calculations are the same. Seems to say that different philosophies may be applied to the same situation. Trying to figure out what he's driving at.
What Feynman is saying is:
1. There can be any number of theories to explain the same phenomenon.
See the list of alternative theories for gravity below, for example.
2. The maths gives pretty much the same results.
All the theories below are consistent with the observed data. In other words, any one of them could be true.
3. The different theories are based on different philosophical models.
For example: General relativity is based on the idea that gravity is caused by the 'curvature of spacetime'. Whereas: "In string theory, one of the many vibrational states of the string corresponds to the graviton, a quantum mechanical particle that carries gravitational force. Thus string theory is a theory of quantum gravity."
4. The philosophical models are psychological tools.
These help physicists to conceptualise the thing they are studying, which makes it much easier to come up with new ideas to research than ploughing through a mountain of tricky maths.
Modern alternative theories:
BransโDicke theory of gravity (1961)
Induced gravity (1967), a proposal by Andrei Sakharov according to which general relativity might arise from quantum field theories of matter
ฦ(R) gravity (1970)
Horndeski theory (1974)
Supergravity (1976)
String theory
In the
modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) (1981), Mordehai Milgrom proposes a modification of Newton's second law of motion for small accelerations[44]
The
self-creation cosmology theory of gravity (1982) by G.A. Barber in which the Brans-Dicke theory is modified to allow mass creation
Loop quantum gravity (1988) by Carlo Rovelli, Lee Smolin, and Abhay Ashtekar
Nonsymmetric gravitational theory (NGT) (1994) by John Moffat
Conformal gravity
Tensorโvectorโscalar gravity (TeVeS) (2004), a relativistic modification of MOND by Jacob Bekenstein
Gravity as an entropic force, gravity arising as an emergent phenomenon from the thermodynamic concept of entropy.
In the superfluid vacuum theory the gravity and curved space-time arise as a collective excitation mode of non-relativistic background superfluid.
Chameleon theory (2004) by Justin Khoury and Amanda Weltman.
Pressuron theory (2013) by Olivier Minazzoli and Aurรฉlien Hees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity