X-Message-Number: 17896 From: "Joseph W. Morgan" <> Subject: Philosophy of Science Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2001 07:52:19 -0700 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_000F_01C16A85.C9EE0B20 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Laymen have difficulty with modern physics because they attempt to apply intuition rather then logic and mathematics to reality. Our intuition does not suffice. Our intuition comes from our everyday experiences in the realm of sizes and speeds where quantum and relativistic effects are not noticeable. Much of modern physics is counter-intuitive yet theoretically and experimentally verified. Some examples are: a.. Matter and energy are equivalent. b.. A vacuum is not the total absence of matter and energy. c.. The rate of time passage and the length of an object varies with both velocity and gravitational field.. d.. Small particles also act like waves. e.. At the atomic scale physical quantities vary in discrete, non-continuous amounts.They are quantized. If you want to see how worthless your intuition is, check out the famous double-slit experiment. Joseph W. Morgan ------=_NextPart_000_000F_01C16A85.C9EE0B20 Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17896