31 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
How Intuition Messed Up the Laws of Motion
A most fundamental problem, for thousands of years
wholly obscured by its complications, is that of motion.
All those motions we observe in nature that of a
stone thrown into the air, a ship sailing the sea, a cart
pushed along the street are in reality very intricate.
To understand these phenomena it is wise to begin
with the simplest possible cases, and proceed gradually
to the more complicated ones. Consider a body at rest,
where there is no motion at all. To change the position
o...And it took a Newton to determine what was really going on.
13 APR 2011 by ideonexus
A World made by Atomes.
SMall Atomes of themselves a World may make,As being subtle, and of every shape:And as they dance about, fit places finde,Such Formes as best agree, make every kinde.For when we build a house of Bricke, and Stone, [5]We lay them even, every one by one:And when we finde a gap that's big, or small,We seeke out Stones, to fit that place withall.For when not fit, too big, or little be,They fall away, and cannot stay we see. [10]So Atomes, as they dance, finde places fit,They there remaine,...Margaret Cavendish's 1653 poem on the nature of atoms,