Physics Week 8: Classical Physics

Newton's Three Laws and me

I never really understand when people say "Physics explains the way life works." because I can't seem to relate classical physics to anything that I see. An example would be with Newton's Three Laws.

First Law: Objects at rest remain at rest, and objects in motion remain in motion in a straight line at constant velocity. A force must be applied to change the state of motion of an object.

Well hmmmm, I don't live in a world where I see this anywhere because this world is abiding to friction and gravity.

Second Law: The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the force acting on it, and inversely proportional to its mass.

This one I get, but because we have different ways to move things, that save energy (in the form of force), with pullys, motors, etc, I feel like I don't see this either.

Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Apparently force always comes in pairs, meaning whatever one objects pushes against another, the other object will have equal force back. I saw an example of this with a rocket ship. The rocket pushes against the ground, and the ground pushes back. I'm sorry people, do I just not get this?? How? What? This is not a natural conclusion of what I see. To me, this is not the way life works. But maybe I'm not comprehending correctly.

Our Energy Efficient Culture

According the laws of thermodynamics, we cannot be energy efficient or wasteful, because no matter what, energy is conserved.

Descartes has a lot to answer for

Descartes did seem to have a lot to say. I like when people think outside of the mainstream system, like he did and push boundaries. But I can't say I agree with much of it. I think artistically tho, mathematical accounts of natural phenomena are beautiful. I would actually love to see an art show with some of Cartesian graphs. I bet they are incredible. He must have had so much passion for these mathematical geometric graphs and I bet it really comes out onto the paper. Lovely.