And, in the last paragraph of the general scholium, the appendix of the Principia, Newton describes electromagnetism and the role of electrical oscillation in the nervous system. It’s actually the root of the the history of “vibes”
“And now we might add something concerning a certain most subtle Spirit, which pervades and lies hid in all gross bodies; by the force and action of which Spirit, the particles of bodies mutually attract one another at near distances, and cohere, if contiguous; and electric bodies operate to greater distances, as well repelling as attracting the neighbouring corpuscles; and light is emitted, reflected, refracted, inflected, and heats bodies; and all sensation is excited, and the members of animal bodies move at the command of the will, namely, by the vibrations of this Spirit, mutually propagated along the solid filaments of the nerves, from the outward organs of sense to the brain, and from the brain into the muscles. But these are things that cannot be explain'd in few words, nor are we furnish'd with that sufficiency of experiments which is required to an accurate determination and demonstration of the laws by which this electric and elastic spirit operates.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20100524103006/http://www.isaacn...
This is some remarkable intuition. Electromagnetism wasn't even developed as a theory. To observe such varied phenomena like how nerves communicate or what comprises matter or the behaviour of light and postulate they might all have something in common and something to do with the attraction/repulsion seen when objects are rubbed together, is incredible. Was the idea very unique for its time or did scientists at the time hold similar ideas? Do you think it was just a lucky guess in the end that the world didn't turn out to be more complex or was there some reason behind this craziness?
Hard to call it a lucky guess when it is the last paragraph of Newton’s magnum opus. But very hard to explain.
Choosing my words carefully, I think it was a kind of deep and deliberate magic. Of the sort Newton ascribed to Pythagoras as the esoteric discoverer of the inverse square law of gravitation. (see “Newton and the pipes of pan”). Hooke also had a sort of musical, oscillatory, spiraling conception of mental phenomena.
In any case, it is striking and amazing— especially in this age of vibes.
To me, the funniest part of why Principica was bankrolled by Edmund Halley is that is was supposed to be funded by the Royal Academy. Only, their previous publishing project "The history of fishes" had faceplanted and they had no money.
Also, when Principica was funded and Halley was himself short on cash, RA decided that they could not afford to actually pay him money (he was the RA secretary). Instead he would get copies of The History of fishes
wait! wait!
so you are saying that there is an official exchange rate for fish books to pounds strerling, guinies?
all I can say is that hopefully someone keeps a copy of the fish book next to a copy of the Principica as a demonstration/proof of the vast leap and gap that suddenly occured
> Halley’s intervention saved science from being reduced to “things fall down because they do” for another century.
Well, that might be stretching it. Speaking as someone who has done a little university level physics the understanding still seems to be basically that things fall because they do - we haven't made much progress beyond a firm strike-through of the word "down".
Newton's contribution was a very precise description of how rapidly they fall, and how we can calculate and understand the direction that things fall in complex multidimensional settings.
Oh come on. Things fall down because matter has a property called gravity that attracts other matter, and below us is a giant earth with a lot of matter. And it has more of a net effect on us than any other matter in the universe because gravity scales with distance and mass in that particular way. That's as darn good of an explanation of why we fall down as one could possibly give. "But why does mass have gravity?" Why does Newton have to have all the answers to every other question too? Maybe ask that and someone will answer that question in a few hundred years? He answered your original question, he didn't claim he can answer every subsequent question you think of. It's quite ridiculous to suggest Newton just tautologically concluded "things fall down because they do" just because he doesn't go on and explain the "why" of every sub-question ad infinitum.
Yes, general relativity explains gravity pretty darn well, tying it to the fundamental fabric of causality that makes up the universe. It goes from “it just happens” to “it must happen and there is no other way it could be.”
It’s interesting how it’s not turtles all the way down (as I understand it at least). The things you learn of one scale do not completely translate to the next but serve as the “shadow” projected by the next level down the line. And this probably brings up the complexity that lets us exist and perceive. I say probably because who knows what else is going on in the universe.
All this to say who knows if we are ever going to learn the fundamental why if there is one.
Maybe? That's one theory - but what is "spacetime", and what does it mean to "bend", or "fall into" something like that? In many ways we've just given things names as if that suddenly means they're understood.
And even then how can that be measured and proven vs other theories? Is it some other mechanism that simplifies to "close enough" that it measures similarly? We didn't really see the effects of relativity until we got to a sufficient accuracy of measurement, Newtonian mechanics was sufficient to explain things to the accuracy they could reproduce for a very long time.
Einstein couldn't have done anything like what he published if he didn't have evidence from new (at the time) equipment suggesting there was something wrong with the current model. And then testing proposed new models against those same measurements.
I've always been a bit flummoxed we haven't expanded a ton on this given how long it's been.
I'm not sure if it's wrong or right, and not smart enough to posit much, other than it -feels- wrong. But it wouldn't take a ton to convince me otherwise.
You'd think by now we'd have more supporting evidence of such a concept.
I think it’s kinda more that (in 3D with time moving at a constant rate) space “falls” into the gravity well, and matter goes with it. In 4D this looks like spacetime being bent.
Is "why" really a meaningful question? These are all models. The best we can do is to show how to derive the phenomenon from the (hopefully simple) rules of our model.
I think so. The why can be a powerful and compact way to express the elements of a model, when a model can be applied, and when the model might break down. A complicated model without a WHY might not be easily understood by others. A surprising, new result with a good WHY can point the way to other aspects of the model that might be confirmed or disproved.
Think about how much our understanding of atoms has changed. I think the why is an important part of the development. If you're interested in that topic, how about a 35 min nuclear physics primer from Angela Collier (I love her videos!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osflPlZdF_o
It's relative. I operationalize "why is X true?" as "update my worldmodel to the point that X is not surprising". The typical way to do that is to show a more general rule that applies, and which implies X. But yes, you can keep asking the question about the more general rule.
Why do things fall? -> A special case of the general law of gravitation.
Why does reality adhere to the general law of gravitation? A implication of matter distorting the shape of spacetime.
Why is reality such that matter distorts space-time?
If you want something that won't fall down, your only options are (1) luck into noticing something that already does that, or (2) understand why things fall down, so you can prevent your thing from falling.
"Alleged eyewitness reports of Joseph's levitations are noted to be subject to gross exaggeration, and often written years after his death."
That sounds super reliable. ;0)
"Poisoning due to the consumption of rye bread made from ergot-infected grain was common in Europe in the Middle Ages. It was known to cause convulsion symptoms and hallucinations. British academic John Cornwell has suggested that Joseph had consumed rye bread (see ergot poisoning). According to Cornwell "Here, perhaps, lay the key to his levitations. After sampling his own loaves he evidently believed he was taking off–as did those who partook of his high-octane bake-offs.""
Eilmer of Malmesbury showed a bit more commitment to his flying:
And, in the last paragraph of the general scholium, the appendix of the Principia, Newton describes electromagnetism and the role of electrical oscillation in the nervous system. It’s actually the root of the the history of “vibes”
“And now we might add something concerning a certain most subtle Spirit, which pervades and lies hid in all gross bodies; by the force and action of which Spirit, the particles of bodies mutually attract one another at near distances, and cohere, if contiguous; and electric bodies operate to greater distances, as well repelling as attracting the neighbouring corpuscles; and light is emitted, reflected, refracted, inflected, and heats bodies; and all sensation is excited, and the members of animal bodies move at the command of the will, namely, by the vibrations of this Spirit, mutually propagated along the solid filaments of the nerves, from the outward organs of sense to the brain, and from the brain into the muscles. But these are things that cannot be explain'd in few words, nor are we furnish'd with that sufficiency of experiments which is required to an accurate determination and demonstration of the laws by which this electric and elastic spirit operates.” https://web.archive.org/web/20100524103006/http://www.isaacn...
This is some remarkable intuition. Electromagnetism wasn't even developed as a theory. To observe such varied phenomena like how nerves communicate or what comprises matter or the behaviour of light and postulate they might all have something in common and something to do with the attraction/repulsion seen when objects are rubbed together, is incredible. Was the idea very unique for its time or did scientists at the time hold similar ideas? Do you think it was just a lucky guess in the end that the world didn't turn out to be more complex or was there some reason behind this craziness?
Hard to call it a lucky guess when it is the last paragraph of Newton’s magnum opus. But very hard to explain.
Choosing my words carefully, I think it was a kind of deep and deliberate magic. Of the sort Newton ascribed to Pythagoras as the esoteric discoverer of the inverse square law of gravitation. (see “Newton and the pipes of pan”). Hooke also had a sort of musical, oscillatory, spiraling conception of mental phenomena.
In any case, it is striking and amazing— especially in this age of vibes.
> It’s actually the root of the the history of “vibes”
?
I had no idea Newton also pioneered British understatement.
To me, the funniest part of why Principica was bankrolled by Edmund Halley is that is was supposed to be funded by the Royal Academy. Only, their previous publishing project "The history of fishes" had faceplanted and they had no money.
Also, when Principica was funded and Halley was himself short on cash, RA decided that they could not afford to actually pay him money (he was the RA secretary). Instead he would get copies of The History of fishes
I enjoyed this anecdote. As gratitude, please accept this copy of History of Fishes
https://archive.org/details/francisciwillugh00will/page/n321...
wait! wait! so you are saying that there is an official exchange rate for fish books to pounds strerling, guinies? all I can say is that hopefully someone keeps a copy of the fish book next to a copy of the Principica as a demonstration/proof of the vast leap and gap that suddenly occured
He ended up swimming with the history of fishes.
sleeping, surely?
> Halley’s intervention saved science from being reduced to “things fall down because they do” for another century.
Well, that might be stretching it. Speaking as someone who has done a little university level physics the understanding still seems to be basically that things fall because they do - we haven't made much progress beyond a firm strike-through of the word "down".
Newton's contribution was a very precise description of how rapidly they fall, and how we can calculate and understand the direction that things fall in complex multidimensional settings.
Oh come on. Things fall down because matter has a property called gravity that attracts other matter, and below us is a giant earth with a lot of matter. And it has more of a net effect on us than any other matter in the universe because gravity scales with distance and mass in that particular way. That's as darn good of an explanation of why we fall down as one could possibly give. "But why does mass have gravity?" Why does Newton have to have all the answers to every other question too? Maybe ask that and someone will answer that question in a few hundred years? He answered your original question, he didn't claim he can answer every subsequent question you think of. It's quite ridiculous to suggest Newton just tautologically concluded "things fall down because they do" just because he doesn't go on and explain the "why" of every sub-question ad infinitum.
That’s what i though as well
> Why apples fall, why planets don’t wander off, and why we aren’t all quietly drifting into space every time we sneeze.
Newton didnt really explain the why.. Einstein added something much later, but it might be that really we still don’t have a clue.
All we can do is measure how fast it happens, very precisely
Isn't it because of the curvature of spacetime? Not that that means much to a layman, but I think that progress has definitely been made.
Yes, general relativity explains gravity pretty darn well, tying it to the fundamental fabric of causality that makes up the universe. It goes from “it just happens” to “it must happen and there is no other way it could be.”
It's funny. We don't float away.
We can never say why. Just produce better and better models.
The whys never end!
It’s interesting how it’s not turtles all the way down (as I understand it at least). The things you learn of one scale do not completely translate to the next but serve as the “shadow” projected by the next level down the line. And this probably brings up the complexity that lets us exist and perceive. I say probably because who knows what else is going on in the universe.
All this to say who knows if we are ever going to learn the fundamental why if there is one.
Doesn't mass bend spacetime (do we know why? No idea) and cause matter to "fall" into the gravity well?
Maybe? That's one theory - but what is "spacetime", and what does it mean to "bend", or "fall into" something like that? In many ways we've just given things names as if that suddenly means they're understood.
And even then how can that be measured and proven vs other theories? Is it some other mechanism that simplifies to "close enough" that it measures similarly? We didn't really see the effects of relativity until we got to a sufficient accuracy of measurement, Newtonian mechanics was sufficient to explain things to the accuracy they could reproduce for a very long time.
Einstein couldn't have done anything like what he published if he didn't have evidence from new (at the time) equipment suggesting there was something wrong with the current model. And then testing proposed new models against those same measurements.
Newton's theory of gravitation did not correctly predict the orbit of Mercury. Einsteins theory of gravitation (General Relativity) does.
I've always been a bit flummoxed we haven't expanded a ton on this given how long it's been.
I'm not sure if it's wrong or right, and not smart enough to posit much, other than it -feels- wrong. But it wouldn't take a ton to convince me otherwise.
You'd think by now we'd have more supporting evidence of such a concept.
> In many ways we've just given things names as if that suddenly means they're understood.
The jargon term for this is "dormitive potency" or, more originally, "dormitive virtue".
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dormitive_virtue
I think it’s kinda more that (in 3D with time moving at a constant rate) space “falls” into the gravity well, and matter goes with it. In 4D this looks like spacetime being bent.
Is "why" really a meaningful question? These are all models. The best we can do is to show how to derive the phenomenon from the (hopefully simple) rules of our model.
I think so. The why can be a powerful and compact way to express the elements of a model, when a model can be applied, and when the model might break down. A complicated model without a WHY might not be easily understood by others. A surprising, new result with a good WHY can point the way to other aspects of the model that might be confirmed or disproved.
Think about how much our understanding of atoms has changed. I think the why is an important part of the development. If you're interested in that topic, how about a 35 min nuclear physics primer from Angela Collier (I love her videos!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osflPlZdF_o
It's relative. I operationalize "why is X true?" as "update my worldmodel to the point that X is not surprising". The typical way to do that is to show a more general rule that applies, and which implies X. But yes, you can keep asking the question about the more general rule.
Why do things fall? -> A special case of the general law of gravitation.
Why does reality adhere to the general law of gravitation? A implication of matter distorting the shape of spacetime.
Why is reality such that matter distorts space-time?
> Is "why" really a meaningful question?
...of course?
If you want something that won't fall down, your only options are (1) luck into noticing something that already does that, or (2) understand why things fall down, so you can prevent your thing from falling.
In fairness, he only explained why a vast vast majority of people don't float away. He didn't adequately explain edge cases like Joseph of Cupertino - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Cupertino
"Alleged eyewitness reports of Joseph's levitations are noted to be subject to gross exaggeration, and often written years after his death."
That sounds super reliable. ;0)
"Poisoning due to the consumption of rye bread made from ergot-infected grain was common in Europe in the Middle Ages. It was known to cause convulsion symptoms and hallucinations. British academic John Cornwell has suggested that Joseph had consumed rye bread (see ergot poisoning). According to Cornwell "Here, perhaps, lay the key to his levitations. After sampling his own loaves he evidently believed he was taking off–as did those who partook of his high-octane bake-offs.""
Eilmer of Malmesbury showed a bit more commitment to his flying:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilmer_of_Malmesbury
I like Eilmer:
> Eilmer said he had "forgotten to provide himself with a tail."
It's actually 338 years. I turn 38 today and was born in 1987. TIL Newton published the Principia exactly 300 years before I was born.
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