Then there's the issue of degrees or levels if you will. Take the example of a block of stone that weighs 10 Newtons. If we exert a force less than 10 Newtons, the block won't budge. Only when a 10 Newton or greater force is applied to the block, the block can be lifted. In such a situation, are we to conclude that the forces 1 or 4 or 5.6 Newtons (less than 10 Newtons) are causes with no effects? :chin: — TheMadFool
How does one distinguish something, an x, that has no effect from something else, a y, that can't possibly be a cause. In all probability, x has to be within the light cone of whatever is being considered an effect and y would lie outside the light cone.
This alone may not suffice for to infer causation there seems to be other essential requirements. For instance, if we're investigating the cause of a fire that started at 5:00 AM, many events will have occured in the light cone of spot where the fire began. Suppose we look at 1 second prior to the fire, the light cone will be a "sphere"(?)186,000 miles in radius. It's possible that within a sphere of that size, two lovers could be kissing, a vehicular collision could occur, and so on. However, knowing the mechanism of fire - heat + oxygen + fuel - that the kiss between the lovers or the traffic collision could be a cause of the fire is ruled out. — TheMadFool
The other subcategories of the Anthropic principle seem to rely more in the existence of conscious beings. Again, I completely disagree with that. — Daniel
If there was no friction, an infinitesimal force would be able to move a huge object. — Daniel
For this part, I do not quite understand what you are trying to say. Could you elaborate/explain in other words? — Daniel
Are you saying that an experiential world has no relevance or meaning there? — 3017amen
if there is no friction (static friction nor kinetic friction) i could accelerate a cruise liner with my finger. If there is the slightest bit of static friction or kinetic friction i would not be able to do that. — christian2017
Yes, absolutely, but because the force would be small and the mass large, the acceleration would be very small. But it would still be something: in the absence of any friction, the cruise liner would slowly begin moving, faster and faster the longer you kept pushing. — Pfhorrest
Just do the math in your own equation. F = ma, correct. If F and m are nonzero, then a is nonzero. Plug in whatever force you can apply with your finger and whatever you look up the mass of a cruise liner to be and find the nonzero acceleration you could apply to it. It will be very small, but not zero. — Pfhorrest
Isn't that Newton's first law of motion? The law of inertia? I think he gives proof of it in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica; I am just guessing, though, never read it. — Daniel
I don't think a finger can generate the force necessary to move a cruiseliner. — TheMadFool
Yeah....me too. Seems I would move backward and the ship would pretty much stay put. Even with Newton’s law, there’s zero force on the ship if all the force is accelerating the lesser mass. — Mww
And experience. Ever tried to push a car on an icy street? Even if the car had a SaranWrap hood and you disfigured it with the pressure of your hands, the car ain’t goin’ nowhere but you’ll end up in a face-plant. — Mww
Anything which doesn't affect something else is by that very nature undetectable and so can't be known to existence. — Michael
It is not, however, that the interaction exists before the objects exist since I think that is impossible. How could there exist a capacity of performing an action x without that which performs the action? — Daniel
Anything which doesn't affect something else is by that very nature undetectable and so can't be known to existence. — Michael
If it does exist we can't know that it exists. — Michael
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