Science, including Einstein's relativity, without time, distance or speed
In 1710 philosopher George Berkeley gave good reasons for not believing what scientists say about the world, but to believe their own eyes instead. This blog shows he was right.
The speedless flow of data Fig 1 shows the writer standing between a pair of mirrors mounted on the north and south walls of a small room. In both mirrors I see a chain of continually changing images of the room. I know they are continually changing because if I move the images of me … Continue reading Removing time, distance, speed and the speed of light from science
‘When I use a word’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master – that’s … Continue reading Humpty Dumpty’s science
What we see On a clear dark night in winter, a person in the northern hemisphere sees a sky full of stars, slowly rotating round the pole star. As they rotate, the positions of all the stars, near and far, are continuosly refreshed, minute by minute. What scientists think we see Scientists tell us that … Continue reading What we see and what scientists think we see
Scientists have two little friends, As pure as driven snow, But everywhere that distance goes, Time is sure to follow. Scientists tell you that it takes 640 years of time for light, travelling through space as a wave at the constant speed of light, to bring you the image you see on a starry night … Continue reading The truth about distance and time
Scientists have always used their own ideas to describe and explain their environment and from those descriptions and explanations they have constructed what they, and everybody else, calls science. In 1710, George Berkeley destroyed all that by the simple assertion that ideas have no role in science. Science can only be discovered from data, and … Continue reading The forgotten scientific revolution of 1710 and George Berkeley
The sorcerer of 1710 During my career as a physicist and teacher of physics, I scarcely realised there was a scientific paradigm to change. I just got on with it without thinking much about what ‘it’ is, In that, I don’t think I was different from my colleagues. When, in my retirement, I read the … Continue reading How Einstein changed the scientific paradigm without realising it
Traditional science ended in 1905 when Einstein’s relativity theory (but not Einstein) discovered (a) that clocks do not measure time, (b) that rulers do not measure distance, and (c) that speed should be redefined as the sine of an angle and the speed of light as the sine of a right angle. Those radical changes … Continue reading The End of Traditional Science
In my first article, the theme was getting rid of named concepts from science. In this, my second article, the theme is balancing concepts and data and making sure that the number of the first does not exceed the number of the second. The reader will find that the two themes amount to the same … Continue reading Balancing data and concepts in scientific explanations
This is a new blog dedicated to simplifying science by removing all its redundant concepts. In this first article I am taking aim at the concepts of time, distance, speed and the speed of light. In later articles I will explain why science works far better without these four, than with them, and why getting … Continue reading Traditional Science versus Objective Science
Science, including Einstein's relativity, without time, distance or speed 