The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919Whitehead, Alfred North
Philosophy
The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919
Whitehead, Alfred North
Knowledge, Theory of; Nature; Science -- Philosophy
The mention of the laws of motion raises another point where the
prevalent theory has nothing to say and the new theory gives a complete
explanation. It is well known that the laws of motion are not valid for
any axes of reference which you may choose to take fixed in any rigid
body. You must choose a body which is not rotating and has no
acceleration. For example they do not really apply to axes fixed in the
earth because of the diurnal rotation of that body. The law which fails
when you assume the wrong axes as at rest is the third law, that action
and reaction are equal and opposite. With the wrong axes uncompensated
centrifugal forces and uncompensated composite centrifugal forces
appear, due to rotation. The influence of these forces can be
demonstrated by many facts on the earth's surface, Foucault's pendulum,
the shape of the earth, the fixed directions of the rotations of
cyclones and anticyclones. It is difficult to take seriously the
suggestion that these domestic phenomena on the earth are due to the
influence of the fixed stars. I cannot persuade myself to believe that a
little star in its twinkling turned round Foucault's pendulum in the
Paris Exhibition of 1861. Of course anything is believable when a
definite physical connexion has been demonstrated, for example the
influence of sunspots. Here all demonstration is lacking in the form of
any coherent theory. According to the theory of these lectures the axes
to which motion is to be referred are axes at rest in the space of some
time-system. For example, consider the space of a time-system α. There
are sets of axes at rest in the space of α. These are suitable dynamical
axes. Also a set of axes in this space which is moving with uniform
velocity without rotation is another suitable set. All the moving
points fixed in these moving axes are really tracing out parallel lines
with one uniform velocity. In other words they are the reflections in
the space of α of a set of fixed axes in the space of some other
time-system β. Accordingly the group of dynamical axes required for
Newton's Laws of Motion is the outcome of the necessity of referring
motion to a body at rest in the space of some one time-system in order
to obtain a coherent account of physical properties. If we do not do so
the meaning of the motion of one portion of our physical configuration
is different from the meaning of the motion of another portion of the
same configuration. Thus the meaning of motion being what it is, in
order to describe the motion of any system of objects without changing
the meaning of your terms as you proceed with your description, you are
bound to take one of these sets of axes as axes of reference; though you
may choose their reflections into the space of any time-system which you
wish to adopt. A definite physical reason is thereby assigned for the
peculiar property of the dynamical group of axes.
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