On Thursday, June 12, 2025 at 8:46:10 PM UTC-6 Brent Meeker wrote:
On 6/12/2025 6:22 PM, Alan Grayson wrote: In graduate school, if not earlier, physicists learn to let equations speak for themselves. Examples are good to develop intuition. But every example is incomplete. And every made-up visualization is misleading in some respect. So think about what counts as "understanding". Knowing the equations and how to apply them is the real understanding. *That means you've de-facto given up on any model that explains the physical interaction of mass/energy with spacetime. AG* No, it means that if I find a fundamental process underlying gravity, like entropic gravity, I will just have moved your problem down to a different one, why does matter produce this entropic gradient that produces gravity. Physics doesn't answer "why" questions about fundamentals; otherwise they wouldn't be fundamental. Brent *Whereas "why' questions always exist regardless of the depth of some theory, physics can and does answer some of these questions in a provisional way. You were taught to be satisfied with provisional theories which give good predictions. The problem with your perspective, is that it endorses the status quo, and is anathema to progress. AG * -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/5f43cc22-9117-4419-8d99-809d7a3acc1cn%40googlegroups.com.
