this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
13 points (76.0% liked)
Science
13581 readers
8 users here now
Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This was a very interesting read !
I get the impression that the author considers Newtonian theory as completely disconnected from reality just because we know it to not hold in every context, and hence practical considerations should not be used to call the apex motion unphysical.
However, the needed infinite precision would make the experiment impossible to set up even if Newtonian mechanics held at microscopic level, just because of measurement erros, as well as wind, earth shaking, ...
The discussion about whether Newton's first law actually states that the forces are first causes for the motion is very interesting. However, I do not find the comparison with the harmonic oscillator appropriate : vanishing instantaneous acceleration at one point in time (like in the harmonic oscillator) is not the same thing as an inertial motion.